I thought eels and doormice were upper class food.
I loved the fight, but the bit with Vorenus wasn’t as good as with Pullo. He could have gutted the big guy a few times when he over extended with the mace before he struck and that leg cut shouldn’t have taken his leg off. But I liked the lovely, lovely violence. 
The prospect of a CSI:Rome spin-off having been mentioned before had this thought going through my head; “Don’t be stupid Pullo, that sword you just ditched had your fingerprints on it!”
I like how HBO finally pulled out the chocks for this episode. At least we got to see some actual fighting and gore and not some cheesy slo-mo montage. The sheild decapitation has got to be one of Television’s finest moments.
That’s a safe assumption. Historically, Antony married Octavia for awhile before he dicovered Cleopatra.
I was think Pullo Andronicus through the whole fight.
I love I, Claudius, and I keep reminding myself that Octavia and Antony are Claudius’s grandparents. I was thinking about how mad Atia will be when Antony marries Octavia, but I looked it up and in real life Atia died before that happened. But who knows what they’ll do on the show.
That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking!!!
As was I and I don’t watch any of those shows. Had to remind myself that the Roman’s weren’t really aware of fingerprints (for those purposes anyways).
I read somewhere that urine was used to set dyes, but since urine has ammonia, maybe it’s an early form of bleach. ??
It was a cool writing device to get Pullo to fight. He didn’t care about himself but dissing his legion got his dander up. As much as warfare changes over the course of a couple of millenia, the comaradie and pride of soldiers in their units never changes. Plus, smack talking a seasoned veteran of the 13th Legion really was pretty stupid. The 13th was Caesar’s personal unit and was the elite of the Roman army. It was kind of the equivalent of the Green Berets or the Marine Corps. It was kind of inspiring to see a couple of army buddies bury all their bad blood when the honor of their unit was at stake.
Did anyone else notice that the boundaries of the arena were marked by what appeared to be giant penis statues???
So what kind of board game were they playing? Were they making up the rules for “chesskers” (good move!) or was it a real game at the time?
The previews for next week show Vorenus getting quite upset and I’d wager this will be why: Ceasar will know about Niobe’s baby and drop that nugget on Vorenus to ‘punish’ him for interfering w Pullo’s execution.
Great episode. I wish the script writers could find a way for Niobe to take out Atia. What a bitch.
Makes sense. That would leave us with the cliffhanger of what Vorenus does to Niobe when he gets home from the forum.
For some reason Vorenus looked very sick in the previews. Such a revelation might have something to do with it.
I dig this show.
Ah, that’s a possibility. They seemed offended when they left. I thought maybe it was because Niobe was acting like lady of the manor, that by giving them money she was treating them as ordinary supplicants. But blackmail fits better.
As for Vorenus’ sour look in the previews for next week, I thought it was probably because he had just witnessed something bad, or maybe that he even took part in it and was feeling quilty.
I don’t think people are going to blame Pullo’s survival on Caesar. If he wanted Pullo to live, he could have arranged for it to be a bit easier, got him a better lawyer, paid a witness to give him an alibi, something.
About Niobe’s dress: I think what was wrong with it was that it stood out stiff and straight. Good Roman fashion was all drapey. So yes, I do think her dress looked ridiculous.
(Stale) urine has been used for thousands of years for cleaning raw wool prior to spinning and fulling:
“Urine that is fresh voided will not scour well. That from persons on a plain diet is stronger and better than that from luxurious livers. The cider and gin drinkers are considered to give the worst, the beer drinker the best. When urine is collected it should be kept in close vessels until it has completely undergone those changes by which ammonia is developed”.
(from this webpage: http://www.btinternet.com/~rob.martin1/full/ur.htm )
Urine became even more important when gunpowder came on the scene:
In 1626, King Charles I ordered
“his loving subjects [to] carefully and constantly keep and preserve in some convenient vessels or receptacles fit for the purpose, all the urine of man during the whole year, and all the stale of beasts which they can save and gather together whilst their beasts are in their stables and stalls, and that they be careful to use the best means of gathering together and preserving the urine and stale, without mixture of water or other thing put therein. Which our commandment and royal pleasure, being easy to observe, and so necessary for the public service of us and our people, that if any person do be remiss thereof we shall esteem all such persons contemptuous and ill affected both to our person and estate, and are resolved to proceed to the punishment of that offender with what severity we may.”
(From this webpage: http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/115CH16fertilizer.html )
Pullo seems to have always been sort of rowdy. But I’ve been wondering if some of his erratic behavior now may have it’s roots in that head injury he got earlier in the series.
Head injuries haven’t helped anybody. Caesar has seizures (no pun intended). Not that will end up being his downfall. The preview for next week certainly spoiled it for everyone!
What, who, Brute?
This is my new favorite show. Took a while to grow on me, but it’s totally working for me now on all levels. Too bad there’s only one episode left till whenever season two stars.