Titus Pullo really just doesn’t know how to live as a civilian, where you can’t express your feelings by abruptly killing people. It looks like his character is on a really bad downhill slope.
There sure are a lot of people in Rome who change with the wind. If Pompey had won, they’d be kissing his ass now, instead of Caesar’s. I liked Caesar’s slave making the same self-serving “ends justifying the means” argument that every dictator or would-be dictator has used (and still uses). Caesar is a great general, but now. . . somebody needs to ventilate that guy.
I liked Octavian’s expression of atheism (in the prior episode) – at least as regards the Pantheon of anthropomorphic gods. Cicero had similar feelings, at least in his private writings.
I have a question/comment about Pullo using the phrase “Wet as October”.
I have been to Rome in October and it was indeed wet. When I was there in August it was hot and dry. This usage seems odd since the “October” in pullo’s time to is now “August” after Julius and Augustus changed the calendar.
I was a bit surprised they killed him. I knew that vanquished kings were forced to participate in the triumph; but I had the wonderfully naive impression that after they kissed Caesar’s ring (or whatever) and signed a peace treaty, they got to retire gracefully. Kinda like the Ethiopians in The Ten Commandments.
As I recall, Octavian expressed some sympathy with Aristotle’s Prime Mover theory, so he seems to have monotheistic leanings. Would’ve made a good Christian.
Thank you** levdrakon**. I had always thought July and August had bumped down September and the rest, what with September being the ninth month and all….
I knew that Vercingetorix was (it’s generally thought) publicly strangled in association with Caesar’s Triumph in 46 BC; I’m assuming it was dramatic license when his body, thrown out with the trash, was recovered and burned on a pyre by Gauls.
The Romans killed a lot of people. In battle, by crucifixion, by wild animals in the arena, by slow torture, by any number of forms of public execution.
Not particularly. If Vercingetorix had captured Caesar, he wouldn’t have been long for the world. Caesar’s skull would probably have been made into a drinking goblet. The Gauls liked to do that with the skulls of their enemies.
Well, technically, the verb cacat means “to shit”. Cacat, caco, cacare, cacavi, cacatus. A piece of shit would be “merda”. I’m pretty sure our root “scato-” comes from the Latin verb “cacat”.
They’re being careful with their dollars episode-to-episode, but they obviously spent a shitload of money on the sets. That huge Forum is one of the biggest, most elaborate things I’ve ever seen constructed for a TV series. And it also costs a ton to have all those extras hanging around all the time. I’m willing to forgive them a meager semi-parade or two.
That had occured to me as well, Cervaise. Same thing for the missing battle scenes. In a series like this, it’s hard not to think in movie terms, where revenues will be coming in for possibly the next fifty years. I think you’re right that by the time writing started full tilt, a huge chunk of the budget had been spent.
I finally got around to watching this last night. I used to like Pullo, but after what he did, no more. My thought while he was beating the slave to death was, “Well, she’ll never marry you now.”
I found it interesting that Vorenus was more upset at the violence done in his house than at the actual murder. He snapped at the slave girl to stop crying, a sign that they don’t consider them humans. Very revealing.
It was my understanding that captured kings were treated as befitted their station, fed well, etc, since it did no good to show the citizens of Rome a bedraggled captive. You want to show someone strong, fit, royal-looking, to prove what a worthy opponent he was, and how much greater was the might of Rome.
Only two episodes left. Not much time for Cleo to return, is it?
