3. White Marble Statues & Wrong Names
This image looks strange, right? This is due to conditioning that began the 16th Century, when most of the most famous works of Roman art was unearthed for the first time. They were originally painted, like the above example, however over time the paint wore away, which we didn't know this until very recently when remains of paint was discovered within the cracks the statues. Therefore thanks to the art of the Renaissance, we have the wrong picture of Roman sculpture. Clean white marble may look Classical, but guess what? It's not, and as a result, every film or TV based in Rome is wrong in this respect. Another small point linked to this misconception is the issue of language: fair enough, films based in Rome can't be in Latin, but why would any Roman Character refer to the Flavian Amphitheatre as the Colosseum in the Roman period, when this name wasn't attached to the Arena until the Middle Ages? Why do people spell the Colosseum, which takes its root from the Latin for colossal, as Coliseum? It's not 1843. Small touches of research would help people understand this world better, rather than retarding people's understanding of the world's most important culture.