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Titus Pullo (character of Rome)
Encyclopedia
Titus Pullo is a fictional character from the HBO/BBC
original television series Rome
, played by Ray Stevenson
. He is depicted as a hedonistic, devil-may-care soldier who discovers hidden ideals and integrity within himself. The basis for this character is the historical Roman soldier of the same name
, who is briefly mentioned in Julius Caesar
's books De Bello Gallico and Commentarii de Bello Civili
.
is the only family Pullo has really known; his friend Lucius Vorenus
, with his strict discipline and uncompromising moral code, comes to represent something like an older brother to him, if not quite a father. Later on down the line, their roles are reversed when Vorenus becomes listless with grief then irrational with anger, and Pullo must take on the more responsible role in order to care for and protect his closest friend.
He represents on one side the darker forces of the plebeian
and barbarian masses that are helping to tear the Republic
apart, but also the life spirit and general goodness that is helping to forge its future. Prone to fits of violent anger, Pullo also on multiple occasions shows emotional depth and a desire to atone for his past sins. The only strong identification he has is that of a soldier. Without that, he initially struggles to fit into Roman society, before eventually finding his place. Pullo's affable manner, even when confronting adversaries, remains a constant source of levity.
single-handedly. His superior officer, Lucius Vorenus, restrains him and calls him a "drunken fool," whereupon Pullo punches Vorenus very hard in the face. As punishment for his brash action, he is hit with a shield and then is scourge
d and imprisoned (sentenced to die in the arena).
One day later, Vorenus appears at his jail cell and frees Pullo so that he can accompany him on the mission to retrieve the stolen eagle of the Legio XIII Gemina
(a.k.a. the 13th Legion). Vorenus' reasoning is that since the pair will probably not find the eagle, he would choose a man who was already disgraced and would not suffer the dishonor of returning without it. Through a twist of fate, Pullo and Vorenus do end up retrieving the eagle, as well as rescuing Caesar's nephew Octavian from the Gauls.
When Caesar's political relations with Pompey the Great go sour, he sends Mark Antony with the 13th Legion to Rome, where Antony, as Tribune of the Plebs, must make an important veto in the Senate in order to avoid civil war between the two generals (Caesar and Pompey). Vorenus and Pullo return Octavian to his mother and go their separate ways, Vorenus to reunite with his wife and Pullo going off to "fuck every whore in the city." While partying, he kills a man who cheated in a game of dice. A bar fight breaks out, during which the dead man's good friend escapes and Pullo is seriously injured. In the morning, Pullo comes crashing into Vorenus's house, discovered by his wife Niobe
. After recovering, he and Vorenus (with the rest of the 13th) are escorting Antony to the Senate when Pullo is attacked by the dead man's friend. Pullo kills his attacker and a battle between the Caesarian 13th and the Pompeian crowd ensues, preventing Antony from entering the Senate. Vorenus is wounded during the fight, and Pullo carries him away.
Antony and the 13th race up north to Caesar's camp. Caesar decides to take his army and march across the Rubicon River
to Rome. Pullo and Vorenus lead a scouting party that rides ahead of Caesar's army and finds Rome abandoned by Pompey (who, it turns out, fled south with most of the Senate). Caesar occupies Rome but is withheld there by Servilia of the Junii
, his lover and the mother of Marcus Junius Brutus.
During this hiatus from fighting, Pullo grows suspicious of Niobe, who he sees talking in hushed tones with a Greek butcher, Evander. He senses that Niobe's marriage with Vorenus is falling apart and comforts his friend. While in the employment of the Julii, Pullo asks Octavian his advice about the matter, wondering if he should say something to Vorenus about his suspicions. Octavian tells him that without proof, his suspicions cannot be justified, so the two abduct Evander and torture him until he reveals the truth: that during Vorenus' absence, he and Niobe were lovers and that fathered a son with her, which Niobe told Vorenus was in fact his grandson (supposedly mothered by Vorena the Elder and fathered by her bumbling boyfriend). Evander asks to die, and Pullo runs him through.
Finally, Caesar leaves to pursue Pompey, and he does so all the way to Greece, leaving the 13th behind in Rome to keep the peace. Caesar does terribly in the campaign, and soon finds himself badly outnumbered. He calls upon the 13th to fight with him. Unfortunately, most of the legionaries are drowned when their ships are sunk by a storm in the Adriatic. Pullo and Vorenus survive only by finding a deserted island. They eventually escape by tying dead comrades together and making a raft
, but they arrive in Greece after the Battle of Pharsalus
, where Caesar wins and Pompey winds up on the run with his family. By coincidence, Pompey's children find Pullo and Vorenus washed up on a beach, and Pompey's men nurse them back to health. The pair sees Pompey, beaten and broken, and Pullo sees an opportunity: "Caesar's gonna drown us in gold!" Vorenus, on the other hand, pities the old general, and allows Pompey to go to Egypt
unhindered. Pompey later arrives in Alexandria
, only to be assassinated.
The two return to Caesar's camp, who is enraged that they allowed Pompey to go free, but pardons them because of their luck
. Caesar explains to Antony, "Those men have powerful gods on their side." Pullo accompanies Caesar to Egypt, where he and Vorenus are ordered to find Cleopatra, held captive by her snivelling baby brother Ptolemy
, and bring her to Caesar in Alexandria. They rescue the princess, who believes that unless she has a child with Caesar, her kingdom will not survive. Finding herself "between the flood" one night while travelling with the two Romans, she enlists the help of Pullo in impregnating
her, which he does all too enthusiastically. Upon arriving in Alexandria, Cleopatra seduces Caesar while Vorenus and Pullo fight off the armies of Ptolemy. Nine months later, Cleopatra gives birth to a son.
Upon his return to Rome after the Battle of Thapsus
, Pullo falls in love with a slave girl, Eirene, whom he rescued from Pompeian soldiers earlier in the series. He frees her and plans to marry her, only to discover that she already has a fiance. Enraged, he kills Eirene's unfortunate young lover in front of Vorenus' children, leading to a painful argument between Pullo and Vorenus. Vorenus kicks Pullo out of the house and calls him a "drunken fool" again.
Pullo retreats to the tavern, where gangster Erastes Fulmen
offers him work as a hitman. Pullo is a reckless killer and is soon arrested for the murder of one of Caesar's political opponents. He is condemned to death in the arena
. Although Caesar wants to free Pullo, he distances himself from the whole affair. Vorenus, although stating "Pullo is dead to me", is given strict orders not to make any attempts to rescue his friend.
Pullo is brought to the arena to face death as a gladiator. At first, he refuses to fight any of the gladiator
s set against him, but one begins to taunt him, calling the 13th Legion "a bunch of bloody mollies" and telling them to "all line up and suck my cock." Provoked by the insult to his former legion, Pullo violently butchers the gladiator and the ten others sent against him, screaming "Thirteenth!" to the crowd. However, being exhausted and heavily wounded from the lengthy fight, he is finally disarmed by a huge gladiator with one eye and a skull-shaped mace. A watching Vorenus, agonised at the sight of his brother dying and moved by Pullo's calls to the Legion, jumps into the arena, shouting "Thirteenth!" and fights and kills the one-eyed gladiator, ramming his own mace through his shoulder and into his heart. The crowd goes wild by such a display of brotherhood and the two become famous heroes.
Pullo returns to Vorenus' house, where Eirene still works and understandably hates him for what he did. Pullo takes her into the country to ask forgiveness at a holy shrine. The last shot of the first season shows Eirene reaching out to hold Pullo's hand.
At the beginning of the second season, Pullo asks Eirene to marry him while on the same country trip. She says yes. Pullo is ecstatic. "You won't regret it!" He says. They sit to eat, only to hear from a messenger that Caesar has been murdered by the Senate. Pullo and Eirene steal the messenger's horse and race back to Rome, where they find Vorenus, covered in blood, standing over the body of Niobe. Vorenus, despondent and borderline psychotic with grief, explains that he discovered Niobe's secret and came home from his duties with Caesar to kill her, as was the custom, but she "did it herself," letting herself slip from a second story balcony onto cobblestones below. He then cursed his children in anger and ran into the lawless streets. He later returned to find the children gone.
Pullo and Vorenus search around the house and find a slave who reveals that Erastes Fulmen, who had become Vorenus' enemy over the course of the first season, came and kidnapped the children. Pullo and Vorenus go to the Aventine Collegium, massacre the gangsters there, and interrogate Fulmen, who tells them that he raped, killed, and threw the children into the Tiber. Vorenus cuts off his head.
A month later, Vorenus and Pullo have grown mourning beards, and Pullo runs the house with Eirene while Vorenus lies upstairs in bed, refusing to move. Mark Antony arrives at Vorenus' house, demands that he get out of bed, and orders that he take Fulmen's place at the Collegium to restore law and order to the Aventine.
Vorenus impresses his fellow crime bosses by, in a rage, destroying a statue of Concord
, declaring, "I fuck Concord in her ass!" and "I am a son of Hades
!" He and Pullo run the Collegium until Vorenus' grief gets the better of his good judgement. He provokes gang wars deliberately and becomes paranoid
, throwing wild accusations at even Pullo, including that his friend had an affair with Niobe. Pullo is understandably hurt and retorts in anger, "Yeah, I fucked her, me and every man of the hill!" This leads to a fistfight and Pullo takes Eirene and leaves the Aventine.
Three months later, Pullo and Eirene return to Rome to find the Aventine in shambles and Vorenus gone north with Mark Antony when Pullo's old friend Octavian provoked him into battle. Meanwhile, this friction among the Caesarians gives Brutus and Cassius, the killers of Caesar who fled east to raise an army after the assassination, the opportunity to "mop up" Antony and Octavian. While in Rome, Pullo discovers that Vorenus' children are alive – and, leaving Eirene in the care of Mascius, goes north to tell him, finding him retreating with Antony's defeated army. Vorenus and Pullo find the children in slavery
and rescue them.
When Antony and Octavian unite to face their common enemy (Brutus and Cassius), Pullo and Vorenus receive a list of prominent senators who they believe have sympathies with the two assassins. Pullo kills Marcus Tullius Cicero
himself. The normally cowardly senator shows great courage facing death. The two men have a strangely civil and amiable conversation before Cicero allows Pullo to kill him. Pullo remarks "he's not a bad fellow, that Cicero" to Vorenus afterwards.
Soon after, Eirene reveals to Pullo that she is pregnant. But to complicate things, Vorenus' slave Gaia is in love with Pullo, and poisons Eirene, who delivers a dead baby and dies. Antony and Octavian defeat Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi
. Vorenus discovers that his children in fact hate him for causing the death of Niobe and cursing them. Vorenus capitalises on the fact that Mark Antony is going to Egypt and sails with him, leaving the Aventine in Pullo's hands.
A few years later, Pullo and Gaia are lovers, and the people of Rome starve because Antony delays grain shipments from Egypt. When war between Octavian and Antony looms, Octavian asks Pullo to accompany him on his campaign. The night before he is to leave with Octavian, Gaia is mortally wounded by an escaped prisoner and reveals to Pullo, on her deathbed, that she killed Eirene. An enraged Pullo strangles her last breaths from her and dumps her body unceremoniously in the river.
Octavian, with Pullo's help, wins the Battle of Actium
and chases Antony to Egypt, where he, Cleopatra, and Vorenus, are held up in the palace at Alexandria. While Octavian besieges Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves while Vorenus escapes with Caesarion, who everyone believes to be Caesar's son by Cleopatra but who is in fact Pullo's son. Pullo is assigned by Octavian to kill Caesarion on the grounds that "there cannot be two sons of Caesar." Instead, Pullo meets up with Vorenus in the Egyptian desert. The two plan to secretly escape Egypt with the boy and go back to Rome. They come across a platoon of Octavian's soldiers and do battle with them. Vorenus is wounded and tells Pullo to take him back to Italy.
They return to Rome, and Pullo announces to Vorenus' children that their father won't last very long. They reconcile with their dying father as Octavian holds a triumph
in his own honour. Shortly afterward, Pullo arrives at Octavian's villa to tell him that Caesarion and Vorenus are dead. Rewarded for apparently killing Caesarion, Pullo leaves to the street, where he tells Caesarion that "he bought it." Caesarion goes on a tirade about reclaiming his rightful empire and redeeming his father's name. As they walk off down a market street Pullo says "Listen, about your father..."
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
original television series Rome
Rome (TV series)
Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
, played by Ray Stevenson
Ray Stevenson (actor)
George Raymond "Ray" Stevenson is a Northern Irish-born English film and television actor. He is known for playing Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome , and in film as Dagonet in King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone and The Super Hero Squad Show...
. He is depicted as a hedonistic, devil-may-care soldier who discovers hidden ideals and integrity within himself. The basis for this character is the historical Roman soldier of the same name
Titus Pullo
Titus Pullo was one of the two Roman centurions of the 11th Legion mentioned in the writings of Julius Caesar. The other soldier mentioned was Lucius Vorenus; they appear in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Book 5, Chapter 44....
, who is briefly mentioned in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's books De Bello Gallico and Commentarii de Bello Civili
Commentarii de Bello Civili
Commentarii de Bello Civili , or Bellum Civile, is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Senate...
.
Personality
Titus Pullo's mother was a slave who died when he was young, and he never knew his father, though he assumes his father was also a slave. The legionRoman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
is the only family Pullo has really known; his friend Lucius Vorenus
Lucius Vorenus (character of Rome)
Lucius Vorenus is a semi-fictional character in the British-Italian-American historical drama television series Rome, a show about the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. Played by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd in the series, Lucius Vorenus is introduced as a main character...
, with his strict discipline and uncompromising moral code, comes to represent something like an older brother to him, if not quite a father. Later on down the line, their roles are reversed when Vorenus becomes listless with grief then irrational with anger, and Pullo must take on the more responsible role in order to care for and protect his closest friend.
He represents on one side the darker forces of the plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
and barbarian masses that are helping to tear the Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
apart, but also the life spirit and general goodness that is helping to forge its future. Prone to fits of violent anger, Pullo also on multiple occasions shows emotional depth and a desire to atone for his past sins. The only strong identification he has is that of a soldier. Without that, he initially struggles to fit into Roman society, before eventually finding his place. Pullo's affable manner, even when confronting adversaries, remains a constant source of levity.
Character history
We first see Titus Pullo breaking ranks at the Siege of Alesia to fight the attacking GaulsGauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
single-handedly. His superior officer, Lucius Vorenus, restrains him and calls him a "drunken fool," whereupon Pullo punches Vorenus very hard in the face. As punishment for his brash action, he is hit with a shield and then is scourge
Scourge
A scourge is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back.-Description:...
d and imprisoned (sentenced to die in the arena).
One day later, Vorenus appears at his jail cell and frees Pullo so that he can accompany him on the mission to retrieve the stolen eagle of the Legio XIII Gemina
Legio XIII Gemina
Legio tertia decima Gemina was one of the most prominent Roman legions. It was one of Julius Caesar's key units in Gaul and in the civil war, and was the legion with which he famously crossed the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC. The legion appears to have still been in existence in the fifth century...
(a.k.a. the 13th Legion). Vorenus' reasoning is that since the pair will probably not find the eagle, he would choose a man who was already disgraced and would not suffer the dishonor of returning without it. Through a twist of fate, Pullo and Vorenus do end up retrieving the eagle, as well as rescuing Caesar's nephew Octavian from the Gauls.
When Caesar's political relations with Pompey the Great go sour, he sends Mark Antony with the 13th Legion to Rome, where Antony, as Tribune of the Plebs, must make an important veto in the Senate in order to avoid civil war between the two generals (Caesar and Pompey). Vorenus and Pullo return Octavian to his mother and go their separate ways, Vorenus to reunite with his wife and Pullo going off to "fuck every whore in the city." While partying, he kills a man who cheated in a game of dice. A bar fight breaks out, during which the dead man's good friend escapes and Pullo is seriously injured. In the morning, Pullo comes crashing into Vorenus's house, discovered by his wife Niobe
Niobe of the Voreni
Niobe, wife of Lucius Vorenus, is a fictional character in the HBO/BBC/RAI original television series Rome, played by Indira Varma.-Personality:...
. After recovering, he and Vorenus (with the rest of the 13th) are escorting Antony to the Senate when Pullo is attacked by the dead man's friend. Pullo kills his attacker and a battle between the Caesarian 13th and the Pompeian crowd ensues, preventing Antony from entering the Senate. Vorenus is wounded during the fight, and Pullo carries him away.
Antony and the 13th race up north to Caesar's camp. Caesar decides to take his army and march across the Rubicon River
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
to Rome. Pullo and Vorenus lead a scouting party that rides ahead of Caesar's army and finds Rome abandoned by Pompey (who, it turns out, fled south with most of the Senate). Caesar occupies Rome but is withheld there by Servilia of the Junii
Servilia of the Junii
Servilia of the Junii is a character from the HBO/BBC/RAI original television series, Rome, played by Lindsay Duncan. The mother of Marcus Junius Brutus, lover of the married Julius Caesar and enemy of Atia of the Julii, Servilia is depicted as a sophisticated and regal Roman matron who follows her...
, his lover and the mother of Marcus Junius Brutus.
During this hiatus from fighting, Pullo grows suspicious of Niobe, who he sees talking in hushed tones with a Greek butcher, Evander. He senses that Niobe's marriage with Vorenus is falling apart and comforts his friend. While in the employment of the Julii, Pullo asks Octavian his advice about the matter, wondering if he should say something to Vorenus about his suspicions. Octavian tells him that without proof, his suspicions cannot be justified, so the two abduct Evander and torture him until he reveals the truth: that during Vorenus' absence, he and Niobe were lovers and that fathered a son with her, which Niobe told Vorenus was in fact his grandson (supposedly mothered by Vorena the Elder and fathered by her bumbling boyfriend). Evander asks to die, and Pullo runs him through.
Finally, Caesar leaves to pursue Pompey, and he does so all the way to Greece, leaving the 13th behind in Rome to keep the peace. Caesar does terribly in the campaign, and soon finds himself badly outnumbered. He calls upon the 13th to fight with him. Unfortunately, most of the legionaries are drowned when their ships are sunk by a storm in the Adriatic. Pullo and Vorenus survive only by finding a deserted island. They eventually escape by tying dead comrades together and making a raft
Raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull...
, but they arrive in Greece after the Battle of Pharsalus
Battle of Pharsalus
The Battle of Pharsalus was a decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War. On 9 August 48 BC at Pharsalus in central Greece, Gaius Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus...
, where Caesar wins and Pompey winds up on the run with his family. By coincidence, Pompey's children find Pullo and Vorenus washed up on a beach, and Pompey's men nurse them back to health. The pair sees Pompey, beaten and broken, and Pullo sees an opportunity: "Caesar's gonna drown us in gold!" Vorenus, on the other hand, pities the old general, and allows Pompey to go to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
unhindered. Pompey later arrives in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, only to be assassinated.
The two return to Caesar's camp, who is enraged that they allowed Pompey to go free, but pardons them because of their luck
Luck
Luck or fortuity is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense...
. Caesar explains to Antony, "Those men have powerful gods on their side." Pullo accompanies Caesar to Egypt, where he and Vorenus are ordered to find Cleopatra, held captive by her snivelling baby brother Ptolemy
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator was one of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.- Co-ruler of Egypt, inner turmoil :...
, and bring her to Caesar in Alexandria. They rescue the princess, who believes that unless she has a child with Caesar, her kingdom will not survive. Finding herself "between the flood" one night while travelling with the two Romans, she enlists the help of Pullo in impregnating
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
her, which he does all too enthusiastically. Upon arriving in Alexandria, Cleopatra seduces Caesar while Vorenus and Pullo fight off the armies of Ptolemy. Nine months later, Cleopatra gives birth to a son.
Upon his return to Rome after the Battle of Thapsus
Battle of Thapsus
The Battle of Thapsus took place on April 6, 46 BC near Thapsus . The Republican forces of the Optimates, led by Quintus Caecillius Metellus Scipio, clashed with the veteran forces loyal to Julius Caesar.-Prelude:...
, Pullo falls in love with a slave girl, Eirene, whom he rescued from Pompeian soldiers earlier in the series. He frees her and plans to marry her, only to discover that she already has a fiance. Enraged, he kills Eirene's unfortunate young lover in front of Vorenus' children, leading to a painful argument between Pullo and Vorenus. Vorenus kicks Pullo out of the house and calls him a "drunken fool" again.
Pullo retreats to the tavern, where gangster Erastes Fulmen
Erastes Fulmen
Erastes Fulmen is a fictional character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by Irish actor Lorcan Cranitch. He is depicted as a ruthless businessman, who over the course of the first season becomes one of the leading figures in the Roman underworld.-Personality:While wearing the...
offers him work as a hitman. Pullo is a reckless killer and is soon arrested for the murder of one of Caesar's political opponents. He is condemned to death in the arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
. Although Caesar wants to free Pullo, he distances himself from the whole affair. Vorenus, although stating "Pullo is dead to me", is given strict orders not to make any attempts to rescue his friend.
Pullo is brought to the arena to face death as a gladiator. At first, he refuses to fight any of the gladiator
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
s set against him, but one begins to taunt him, calling the 13th Legion "a bunch of bloody mollies" and telling them to "all line up and suck my cock." Provoked by the insult to his former legion, Pullo violently butchers the gladiator and the ten others sent against him, screaming "Thirteenth!" to the crowd. However, being exhausted and heavily wounded from the lengthy fight, he is finally disarmed by a huge gladiator with one eye and a skull-shaped mace. A watching Vorenus, agonised at the sight of his brother dying and moved by Pullo's calls to the Legion, jumps into the arena, shouting "Thirteenth!" and fights and kills the one-eyed gladiator, ramming his own mace through his shoulder and into his heart. The crowd goes wild by such a display of brotherhood and the two become famous heroes.
Pullo returns to Vorenus' house, where Eirene still works and understandably hates him for what he did. Pullo takes her into the country to ask forgiveness at a holy shrine. The last shot of the first season shows Eirene reaching out to hold Pullo's hand.
At the beginning of the second season, Pullo asks Eirene to marry him while on the same country trip. She says yes. Pullo is ecstatic. "You won't regret it!" He says. They sit to eat, only to hear from a messenger that Caesar has been murdered by the Senate. Pullo and Eirene steal the messenger's horse and race back to Rome, where they find Vorenus, covered in blood, standing over the body of Niobe. Vorenus, despondent and borderline psychotic with grief, explains that he discovered Niobe's secret and came home from his duties with Caesar to kill her, as was the custom, but she "did it herself," letting herself slip from a second story balcony onto cobblestones below. He then cursed his children in anger and ran into the lawless streets. He later returned to find the children gone.
Pullo and Vorenus search around the house and find a slave who reveals that Erastes Fulmen, who had become Vorenus' enemy over the course of the first season, came and kidnapped the children. Pullo and Vorenus go to the Aventine Collegium, massacre the gangsters there, and interrogate Fulmen, who tells them that he raped, killed, and threw the children into the Tiber. Vorenus cuts off his head.
A month later, Vorenus and Pullo have grown mourning beards, and Pullo runs the house with Eirene while Vorenus lies upstairs in bed, refusing to move. Mark Antony arrives at Vorenus' house, demands that he get out of bed, and orders that he take Fulmen's place at the Collegium to restore law and order to the Aventine.
Vorenus impresses his fellow crime bosses by, in a rage, destroying a statue of Concord
Concordia (mythology)
In Roman religion, Concord was the goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony. Her Greek version is Harmonia, and the Harmonians and some Discordians equate her with Aneris. Her opposite is Discordia ....
, declaring, "I fuck Concord in her ass!" and "I am a son of Hades
Hades
Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
!" He and Pullo run the Collegium until Vorenus' grief gets the better of his good judgement. He provokes gang wars deliberately and becomes paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
, throwing wild accusations at even Pullo, including that his friend had an affair with Niobe. Pullo is understandably hurt and retorts in anger, "Yeah, I fucked her, me and every man of the hill!" This leads to a fistfight and Pullo takes Eirene and leaves the Aventine.
Three months later, Pullo and Eirene return to Rome to find the Aventine in shambles and Vorenus gone north with Mark Antony when Pullo's old friend Octavian provoked him into battle. Meanwhile, this friction among the Caesarians gives Brutus and Cassius, the killers of Caesar who fled east to raise an army after the assassination, the opportunity to "mop up" Antony and Octavian. While in Rome, Pullo discovers that Vorenus' children are alive – and, leaving Eirene in the care of Mascius, goes north to tell him, finding him retreating with Antony's defeated army. Vorenus and Pullo find the children in slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and rescue them.
When Antony and Octavian unite to face their common enemy (Brutus and Cassius), Pullo and Vorenus receive a list of prominent senators who they believe have sympathies with the two assassins. Pullo kills Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero (Rome character)
Marcus Tullius Cicero is a historical figure who features as a character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by David Bamber. He is depicted as a moderate politician and scholar, who is challenged with trying to save the traditional Republic from the ambitions of the various...
himself. The normally cowardly senator shows great courage facing death. The two men have a strangely civil and amiable conversation before Cicero allows Pullo to kill him. Pullo remarks "he's not a bad fellow, that Cicero" to Vorenus afterwards.
Soon after, Eirene reveals to Pullo that she is pregnant. But to complicate things, Vorenus' slave Gaia is in love with Pullo, and poisons Eirene, who delivers a dead baby and dies. Antony and Octavian defeat Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi
Battle of Philippi
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia...
. Vorenus discovers that his children in fact hate him for causing the death of Niobe and cursing them. Vorenus capitalises on the fact that Mark Antony is going to Egypt and sails with him, leaving the Aventine in Pullo's hands.
A few years later, Pullo and Gaia are lovers, and the people of Rome starve because Antony delays grain shipments from Egypt. When war between Octavian and Antony looms, Octavian asks Pullo to accompany him on his campaign. The night before he is to leave with Octavian, Gaia is mortally wounded by an escaped prisoner and reveals to Pullo, on her deathbed, that she killed Eirene. An enraged Pullo strangles her last breaths from her and dumps her body unceremoniously in the river.
Octavian, with Pullo's help, wins the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...
and chases Antony to Egypt, where he, Cleopatra, and Vorenus, are held up in the palace at Alexandria. While Octavian besieges Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves while Vorenus escapes with Caesarion, who everyone believes to be Caesar's son by Cleopatra but who is in fact Pullo's son. Pullo is assigned by Octavian to kill Caesarion on the grounds that "there cannot be two sons of Caesar." Instead, Pullo meets up with Vorenus in the Egyptian desert. The two plan to secretly escape Egypt with the boy and go back to Rome. They come across a platoon of Octavian's soldiers and do battle with them. Vorenus is wounded and tells Pullo to take him back to Italy.
They return to Rome, and Pullo announces to Vorenus' children that their father won't last very long. They reconcile with their dying father as Octavian holds a triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
in his own honour. Shortly afterward, Pullo arrives at Octavian's villa to tell him that Caesarion and Vorenus are dead. Rewarded for apparently killing Caesarion, Pullo leaves to the street, where he tells Caesarion that "he bought it." Caesarion goes on a tirade about reclaiming his rightful empire and redeeming his father's name. As they walk off down a market street Pullo says "Listen, about your father..."