For the next 15 weeks, Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas plans to spend his Thursday nights in the company of murderers, thieves and assorted other miscreants, the kind of people who'd poison their own children, rape their siblings and demand their hapless victims treat them like gods.
But Cardenas, a 17-year veteran of the bench, won't be holding night court. Instead, the jurist and amateur historian will be leading an Anaheim library series on some of the most entertaining villains in Western Civilization's long sweep: Caligula, Livia and the other members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty depicted in the renowned PBS-TV serial "I, Claudius."
"It's got everything: sex, murder, intrigue," says Cardenas. "But it's quite accurately based on the history of the defining years of the Roman Empire. It's like 'Dallas,' only it's real."
Cardenas, who presided over dentist Tony Protopappas' murder trial in 1984 and oversaw portions of serial killer Randy Kraft's case in the 1980s, has made a second career of his passion for ancient civilization.
For more than 10 years, he has taught Roman history in Cal State Fullerton's extension program for senior citizens. Two years ago, he led his students on a tour of Italy, focusing on Roman antiquities.
But in his Anaheim library program, Cardenas will for the first time be able to combine serious history with--on screen, anyway--serious mayhem.
Each week, Cardenas will screen an episode of the 13-part "I, Claudius" series, the 1976 BBC production based on the historical novels of Robert Graves. Starring Derek Jacobi as the stammering Claudius, who succeeded Caligula (John Hurt) as emperor in AD 41, the series depicts the ruthless domestic life of Rome's First Family.
After each episode, Cardenas will moderate an hourlong discussion, correlating the characters and events depicted with contemporary sources, primarily the writings of Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus.
Through the program, Cardenas hopes to spark interest in a culture that has many parallels to our own.
"The influence of ancient Rome is all around us," he says, noting that everyone from the Founding Fathers to the purveyors of vice have drawn on Roman images to legitimize their endeavors.
"It wasn't an accident that the founders of this republic chose to call its highest legislative body the Senate," Cardenas said. "They were seeking to associate their new, secular state with the political and legal values of the Roman Republic.
