Rome, Episode 1.02"How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic" (Review)

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Rating: 7,5/10

Voreno: Rimarrà com’è stato fin dalla fondazione della Repubblica. Perché dovrebbe cambiare? Ottaviano: Perché il popolo romano sta soffrendo. Perché gli schiavi hanno preso tutti i posti di lavoro. Perché i nobili si sono accaparrati tutti i terreni e le strade sono piene di senzatetto e affamati.

The thirteenth legion is finally back in Rome, following Mark Antony for which Caesar has bought the office of plebeian tribune. Vorenus can thus finally meet again his wife whom he has not seen for eight years, while Pullo gets soon himself into trouble playing dice.

Less exciting than the previous episode, but I still liked it, especially because it takes place almost completely in Rome.

Vorenus returns home after eight years... and wuath a romantic reunion! He's just arrived and finds his wife with a baby in her arms, and he calls her a whore in front of everyone, but Niobe tells him that the little boy is the son of their thirteen-year-old daughter.

At the end of the episode instead we see Niobe breastfeedding the baby!

I wondered, while watching, about the meaning of the title of this episode, and I descovered it at the end:

Pullo causes a brawl in which someone dies (and he breaks his head), so when he passes through Rome as body guard for Mark Antony he's attacked, and everyone thinks that the target was indeed Antonio, so it's a mess that I'm not telling in detail, but it's enought to say the declaration of Caesar as an enemy of Rome, which then led to the civil war,

it's all Titus Pullo's fault! :) I loved that, for two reasons: 1) it was a bit boring following the events about Pullo and Vorenus, so seeing that in some way they are also mixed ith the great events made immediately disappear my boredom; 2) it's interesting to think that so important historical events may have been caused by a drunkard idiot! :)

Mark Antony was elected plebeian tribune in a very boring ceremony of witch we every now and then a few moments while other characters' stories continue :). We discover in this episode that the bell'Antonio is having an affair with Atia. Two strange things I noticed about him. Characters' names are all in english, but during the ceremony they call Mark Anthony "Marcus Antonius!... dunno! The second oddity is similar: when Anthony makes a joke with Pompey and Cato he says "Che brutta figura!", that means "what a poor figure!". What's the point with make him speak italian?

I already love Cicero! I don't know why, perhaps because he didn't want to cede to Pompey's plans, because of his anger when things go wrong, or perhaps because of the actor's British accent ;), I don't know, but it's sure that in this episode I liked him a lot! :)

For the rest, the story goes on, and we come to an important moment: at the end of the episode

Caesar passes the Rubicon - without saying "the die is cast"... I was a little upset by it! :)

I then continued to be amazed about how easily these people do sex in front of everyone, and not only that: for example, even the operation at Pullo's head (horrifying!!) watched by many viewers!

Quotes

By the Five Furies, if I were not a genteel woman, I’d have you flayed and hung from a bracket at the door!

Atia

[Discussing terms of Caesar's return to Rome]

Pompey: "He sits alone in Ravenna with one mutinous skeleton of a legion and he dares to dictate terms to me!?"

Mark Antony: "Caesar has many more legions than the Thirteenth."

Scipio: "Yes, on the far side of the Alps."

Mark Antony: "Winter does not last forever. Spring comes. Snows melt."

Scipio: "That is a threat!"

Mark Antony: "No, I assure you, that is no threat. Snows always melt."