Welcome to my perfumed garden

"Maybe because I've seen movies and read books set in that time period, and I have a reasonable expectation of what people should sound like? In most of the movies I've seen set in ancient Greece/Rome, the characters seem to be speaking with a slightly Anglicized universal accent, like news reporters. So maybe that's why modern language doesn't seem that jarring to me in "Alpha and Omega" but might be in another historical AU..."

But isn’t that the very ‘perceived notion’ about the way people spoke that is so false? I think there’s a convention in TV and film, that ancient peoples have to speak in a slightly formalized way (possibly based on a nod to Shakespeare?), that can’t possibly be authentic, but does, I think, influence many people’s expectations of how 2 characters in an historical setting, should speak.