Awesome / Rome

• Caesar's Rousing Speech to get his troops to march on Rome.
  "I can lay down my arms and surrender, or I can march back home with a sword in my hand and drive those bunch of criminals back to the Tarpian Rock!"
• Mark Antony gets tired of Atia's powerplays and instead of betraying Caesar, he puts Atia in her place and embarks to Greece with his army.
  Antony: I had not realized until now what a wicked old harpy you really are.
• Brutus is, at various times, spoiled fool, a drunkard, and cowardly, yet gets a crowning moment of awesome just before his death at the battle of Philippi, which is clearly lost: he thanks his men for their service, urges them to save themselves and asks one centurion to pass a farewell message to his mother, kisses the signet ring made from the crown of the Tarquin King his ancestor drove from Rome, and walks off alone and unarmoured to fight an entire regiment of Octavian and Antony's soldiers, knowing full well he'll die in the attempt. The advancing enemy legionnaires are even hesitant to move on him because of his brazenness.
  Brutus: (addressing his men for the last time) It has been an honour and a pleasure leading you, and I am sorry we could not do better. But you must look to yourselves now. Save your skins. (to the centurion) Give my best to my mother. Tell her...tell her something suitable.
• Titus Pullo gets far more than his fair share of awesome. However, probably the most spectacular moment came when a rival mob boss tries to defuse an armed confrontation by suggesting they talk things over like reasonable men. Pullo bites out his tongue, then proceeds to go Ax-Crazy and lead the Aventine Collegium to victory in a Curb-Stomp Battle against the other gangs.
  • But most of all... Thirteen!
    • Which also serves as a Heartwarming Moment, if a very violent one...
• And don't forget Servillia. After the death of her son, she parks herself outside Atia's house and calls out "Atia of the Julii, I call for justice" over and over and freaking over again while her servant pours ashes over her. After what seems to be at least twelve solid hours of this, Atia finally has had enough and goes outside, and Servillia has the following to say: "Gods below: I am Servilia of the most ancient and sacred Junii of whose bones the seven hills of Rome are built. I summon you to listen. Curse this woman! Send her bitterness and despair for all of her life. Let her taste nothing but ashes and iron. Gods of the underworld, all that I have left I give to you in sacrifice if you will make it so." Then she stabs herself in the heart, followed by her servant doing the same. Even Antony has to admit, "Now that is an exit."
• Octavian in Season 2, after suffering being everyone's Butt Monkey since he was a child, tells his family and Marc Antony they will do things his way from now on or suffer. Marc Antony tries calling his bluff and invites him to say how he intends to make him do anything, and Octavian renders him speechless and impotent with rage with an epic verbal beatdown, describing how he will destroy Marc Antony's power base (the respect of the Roman citizens and the armies):
  Octavian: You shall leave this city or I will declare our alliance broken. I will have this sad story read in the forum, I will have it posted in every city in Italy — and you know the people are not so liberal with their wives as you. They shall say you wear cuckold's horns; they shall say your wife betrayed you with a low-born plebe on my staff. You will be a figure of fun. The proles will laugh at you in the street. Your soldiers will mock you behind your back.
  Antony: [seizes Octavian's neck as if to strangle him]
  Octavian: Go on, strike me. See what happens.
  • It's even more epic when you consider Marc Antony's psychology: his whole life has been about fighting and physical prowess, always being the dominating force. He's been outfought physically, he's been beaten on the battlefield, but to be dominated by someone without a single blow being struck is more humiliating and infuriating for him than any lost war or personal defeat could ever be. It's also a great call-back to when Antony beat Octavian up earlier in the story — you clearly see Octavian's calm and absolute triumph, repaying his shame and humiliation tenfold and knowing that Antony can never hurt him again.
• Octavian’s systematic revenge against his abusive mother Atia is nothing short of satisfying. After she spent his childhood demeaning him, beating him, and even letting her lover Marc Antony brutally abuse him in a rage, he gets back at her by ensuring she will never be married to Antony, strips all of Antony’s power she used to protect herself and indirectly gets him killed, and basically ensures she will spend her remaining life under his thumb being respectful and pious under penalty of immediate punishment.
• Mark Antony pulling Vorenus out of his depression with one charismatic speech after the deaths of Caesar and Niobe and charging him with taking over the Aventine collegia. Though he may be a "drink-sodden, sex-addled wreck," to quote Cicero, that scene shows why so many were devoted to Antony, and how he was later able to get Lepidus' entire army to defect to him without so much as a sword being raised.
• Probably grating, but Lucius Vorenus also deserves one after taking over the Aventine collegia of Erastes Fulmen (as mentioned, a predecessor to the Italian mafia). Having gone from being an honorable centurion, to magistrate, and the first Plebeian senator, his "honorable background" makes the other "collegians" disdain his call to unite their forces. The proceedings were watched by priests of the goddess Concordia/Concord. Desirous to make an impression that he is now "bad to the bone" with enough "street cred," Vorenus calmly takes the image of Concord and smashes it on the wall, followed by this gem:
  Lucius Vorenus: I... AM A SON... OF HADES!!! I FUCK CONCORD - IN HER ARSE!!!
  • No less Awesome Vorenus' actual killing of Fulman. The mob boss is relaxing in a steam room when he hears the sound of fighting in the adjoining part of the tavern. After repeatedly shouting at his men to throw whoever is making the racket out, a blood drenched Vorenus walks in. Fulman tries to run away to his men only to find that every single member of his crew has been slaughtered by Lucius and Pullo.
  (fighting in the other room)
  Erastes Fulman: Flavio, tell those damn scurras to shut that up. They wanna fight, take it outside. (fight sounds continue)
  Erastes: Flavio! Fucking useless. (fight sounds gradually stop and Erastes lies back down)
  Lucius Vorenus: (stalks into view, drenched in blood) You have my children.
  (Erastes sits the hell up, slightly panicked now)
  Vorenus: You have my children.
  Erastes: Eh? The fuck you talkin' about?
  Vorenus: You... have... my children.
  Erastes: Someone's misled you, friend.
  Vorenus: Where are they?
  Erastes: I dunno.
  Vorenus: (crying, beseeching him) Where are they?
  Erastes: Flavio?!?
  Vorenus: (instantly gives a scary smile, enhanced by all the blood on his face) Flavio's not coming.
  • Fulman refusing to beg for his life in the face of this slaughter is pretty awesome in itself.
  Erastes: You're not a bad sort of man, Vorenus. You just have too much anger in you.
  Titus Pullo: TELL HIM!!
  Erastes: I took your children in payment for your many slights to me. I fucked them. Then I killed them. And then I threw them in the river.
  Lucius Vorenus: (sobbing gasp of grief as he hauls back his gladius to swing)
  Erastes' Neck: Squuuck.
  Erastes' Severed Head: Thump.
• When Pullo found out that Gaia poisoned his pregnant wife that ended up killing her and his unborn child. She was lay dying as she told the truth about it. She was dying and seemed sorry for what she did. Did Pullo decide to let go of it and forgive her? Nope, he strangled her to death. And to top it all of, he threw her body to the river just like that, no tears, no prayers, no nothing. After all she had done, having her killed and then her body disrespectfully thrown away is just satisfying.
  • Gaia clears any doubts about her badassery in the previous scene, saving Pullo's life and dispatching Memmio in the process; even if it didn't - by any means - make things alright with him.
• Atia giving Livia a perfect verbal smackdown with enough venom in the eyes and steel in the voice to make it really hurt. “I know who you are. I can see you. You're swearing now that, someday, you'll destroy me. Remember that far better women than you have sworn to do the same. Go look for them now.” The best bit? You know that she is in a pretty long spell of self-loathing and self-revelation, and she is the most vulnerable she's ever been. And yet she still bluffs her way to the front of her son's victory parade ahead of his wife.
  • It's also a backhanded, posthumous compliment to Servilia. Atia basically acknowledged the woman as her Worthy Opponent, and Livia was never going to match up.
  • Which most likely recalls (or reverse-foreshadows, if you will) how the Livia people saw in I, Claudius emerged from the Plucky Girl Livia of this series.
• Cicero's "The Reason You Suck" Speech Take That! against Marc Antony. The man has the career soldier pegged down perfectly, right down to the last comment to make him lose control. Incidentally, the various lines from his speech are taken directly from Cicero's Second Oration against Antony, commonly known as the second Philippic.
  Clerk: (holding up a scroll for all to see) These being the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero... "When I was a young man, I defended our state. As an old man, I shall not abandon it. I give sincere thanks to Marc Antony, who has generously presented me with the most promising theme imaginable.
  Marc Antony: (chuffed) Hm!
  Clerk: "I address you directly, Antony. Please listen as if you... as if you..."
  Antony: (perplexed) Go on...
  Clerk: (shaken) "...Please listen, as if you were sober and intelligent, and not a drink-sodden, sex-addled wreck."
  (Senators start fleeing the rotunda)
  Clerk: "You are certainly not without accomplishments: it is a rare man who can boast of becoming a bankrupt before even coming of age. You have brought upon us war, pestilence and destruction. You are Rome's Helen of Troy. But then... but then..."
  Antony: (now apoplectic) Go on... GO ON!
  Clerk: "...a woman's role has always suited you best." [alluding to the common rumor that Antony, in his youth, was the "bottom" in a gay relationship with Gaius Scribonius Curio]
  Antony: NWAAARGH! (grabs the scroll, rips the parchment from its holder and bashes the clerk's brains out with it)
  • Cicero's death scene is Face Death with Dignity at it finest. A worthy death to one of the finest men in Rome.
    • Cicero was not, in real life or in the show, a particularly brave man. His actor can portray the pants soiling terror of death in Cicero's last moments, but you can see his deliberate refusal to cave in to his fear. It's brilliant.
• After Caesar's assassination, Quintus Pompey tries to murder Marc Antony on the steps of the Senate. Antony barely escapes with his life, but surprises everyone by forming an alliance with Brutus instead of fleeing the city. The two embrace in public to show they're now friends, then a smiling Antony walks over to a puzzled Quintus as if he's going to embrace him as well...and slashes his throat. Antony then casually strolls off while Quintus' men, because of the truce, just stand there gaping.
  • Watch the guys in the background when Antony approaches Quintus. They practically crap their pants in fear when Antony opens his throat.
• Shortly after this, when Antony uses Caesar's funeral as an opportunity to incite the Roman mob against Caesar's assassins, he bluntly tells Brutus, Cassius and co. to get out of Rome and drives home the point that if they refuse, he will turn loose the plebian mob (of whom Caesar was beloved) on them. The Liberatores quickly comply.
  Cassius: You may wish as you will. We yet have all the Senate behind us and all the men of quality. (A furious Antony storms over to Cassius)
  Antony: (fuming with rage) And I have an angry mob, that will roast and eat your "men of quality" in the ashes of the Senate House!
• Octavian's first address to the Senate upon becoming Consul. It swiftly drives home that he's clearly Taken A Level In Badass as he more or less forces the Senate into doing as he tells them, as well as the collective Oh, Crap! from the Senate (Cicero in particular) as they realise the 19 year old boy they all assumed would be a malleable puppet is in fact infinitely more politically savvy and dangerous than they ever imagined.
  Octavian: As my first act, I propose a motion ''to declare Brutus and Cassius murderers and enemies of the state.
  (The gathered Senators begin muttering angrily at this. A deeply rattled Cicero, at this, rises and goes over to Octavian)
  Cicero: My dear boy, this is not what we agreed!
  Octavian: It is not. Nevertheless, here we are.
  Cicero: Brutus and Cassius still have many friends. You will split the chamber, the unity of the Republic!
  Octavian: Step away from my chair.
  (Cicero's expression is one of unmitigated horror as he reluctantly returns to his seat. Octavian stands up and points to the Senate floor)
  Octavian: My father died on this floor. Right there. Stabbed 27 times. Butchered by men he called his friends. Who will tell me that is not murder? (legionaries begin filing into the Senate chamber; the gathered Senators begin raving in outrage) Who will tell my Legions, who love Caesar as I do, that that is not murder?! (The soldiers draw their swords and the chamber falls deathly silent) Who will speak against the motion?
• Cleopatra decides to Face Death with Dignity, dresses herself as a queen, and commits suicide via a snake's bite rather than endure the humiliation that Octavian plans to inflicts on her, which will likely culminate in watching him murder her son. When Octavian and his troops burst into the room after she's been bitten by the snake, despite the pain and the fact that she's mere seconds from death, Cleopatra manages to stand up, face down Octavian, and spit out a Dying Declaration of Hate that gives Octavian pause, then still has the wherewithal to sit back on her throne and clasp the hand of Antony's body as she dies. While perhaps slightly understated, a Dying Moment of Awesome doesn't get much better than that.