"I shall be a good politician. Even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else, for that matter."
—Mark Antony
Rome is a semi-historical drama series co-produced by HBO and the BBC that follows the lives of politicians, socialites, and soldiers in Ancient Rome starting During The War under Caesar and progressing through the power struggles and ascension of Augustus as the Emperor of Rome. Featuring one of the most notable Evil Matriarch characters in recent TV history, Atia of the Julii.One of its most innovative ideas was to focus on the lives of ordinary fictional Romans, rather than just historical figures like Caesar or Augustus. This had been explored before in literature and in Sit Coms, but Rome was the first television drama to do so. It was a great concept, though opinions differ on whether it managed to pull it off well or not. The show had a tremendous ensemble cast, incredible production values and was both epic in scope and payed meticulous, loving attention to detail. It ended after its second series due to insufficient ratings to justify its massive expense.Bruno Heller has announced a feature film to be based on the series.For the place in Italy, see The Eternal City.
This show provides examples of:
Aborted Arc: Timon's subplot peters out after only a few episodes before he's Put on a Bus. It's been suggested that, had the series gone on longer, the final season would have dealt with the rise of The Messiah in Palestine. Had this actually happened, he probably would have had a much bigger role.
Added Alliterative Appeal: Very briefly, but memorably with Pullo's "It's a sphucking sphinx!" line.
Anachronism Stew: Mostly averted, although there are a number of examples. Although early in the Roman Republic Plebeians generally did constitute a politically disenfranchised and poor lower class. By the time of the show however Plebeians had more or less formal political equality with Patricians, and there were enough instances of Plebeians becoming rich and Patricians becoming destitute that the title had little bearing on economic status. With the conflict in Rome at the time being mostly rich vs. poor, depicting the rivalry as being essentially Plebeians vs. Patricians is very attractive, but also very inaccurate. Many Republicans were in fact very wealthy Plebeians, most notably Cicero and Cato the Younger (the latter being depicted on the show as regarding Plebeians as trash).
Antagonist In Mourning: "HE WAS A CONSUL OF ROME!". Caesar when presented with Pompey's head.
Anything That Moves: Mark "I'm not getting out of bed until I've fucked someone" Antony. Especially given, as a condition of marriage, Atia demands that Antony get rid of all the house slaves — male or female — that he's bedded.
Armour Piercing Question: Not actually a question, but "You have a rotten soul." clearly leaves Octavian shaken.
Bad Ass: Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. Part of it stems from Plot Armor, but these two regularly take the phrases "Outnumbered by 3 to 1" and "Numerical superiority" and do unprintable things to them.
They *are* legionaries, with superior training to most of the mooks they square against. Plus, most of them never see it coming, since Pullo and Vorenus are mostly in civilian garb. And then the pain starts...
Mark Antony buggers boys like Octavian for his morning snack.
"I am a son of HADES! I fuck Conchord in her ASS!"
Bastard Boyfriend: Octavian tells Livia before their wedding that he'll whip her just because it arouses him. Once married, Octavian finds way more arousing if Livia beats him instead.
Battle Discretion Shot: Done to save money. The battle of Pharsalus, where Caesar defeated Pompey, is shown only as a couple of horsemen clanging at each other, followed by one of Pompey's standards falling into the dust.
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Caesar never said "Et tu, Brute" when dying, and the series correctly leaves out the phrase. In the next episode, Brutus says to his mother, after she agrees with those who think he should kill Antony: "You too, mother?"
Worth mentioning is that Ciaran Hinds' facial expression, especially his eyes, carried the question "Et tu, Brute?" silently. Very effective.
Berserk Button: Don't insult the Thirteenth Legion, just don't. Or cheat at dice, or be a Smug Snake (you might get your tongue bitten out), and, and, and... Pullo is basically a nice chap and possibly the most sane character of the series, but he definately also has a temper on him and a ruthless streak as wide as the Via Appia.
By the same token, try not to be the person reading a speech of Cicero's where he calls Mark Antony "Rome's Helen of Troy" and says that it fits him, because "a woman's role always suited you best" if the person in question is in earshot.
Also not a good idea to suggest to Vorenus that he do anything dishonourable for his own profit. The look on Pullo's face as he watches some poor Mook suggest they team up to sell out Pompey pricelessly says it all. Vorenus calmly tells the mook that he has until Vorenus finishes speaking to run away and then coldly stabs him through the throat when the warning is not heeded.
Biggus Dickus: Atia sends Servilia a gift of a slave with a wang that would make Doctor Manhattan blush. That had to have been a hell of a casting call.
Bilingual Bonus: Lots of Latin graffiti, some of which (ATIA FELLAT OMNES comes to mind) are self-explanatory even if you don't know Latin.
Bio Pic: The first season chronicles the rise and fall of Caesar, as well as the childhood of Octavian, whose growth into Emperor Augustus is the arc of the second season.
Bittersweet Ending: Octavian manages to fight his way out of his mother's shadow and become emperor, but with the implication that he may turn out to be just as depraved as Antony was. Meanwhile, Vorenus dies, but he manages to die at peace, knowing that his children have forgiven him for their mother's death. And Pullo manages to save Caesarion (who is really his biological son) from Octavius, and goes off to raise him as his own.
If you know history, the only bittersweet ending is Vorenus' fate. The rest, alas, is history (and Octavian being awesome).
Blood Bath: Atia takes a shower in the blood pouring down from a slaughtered bull in the first episode.
Blood On The Debate Floor : A full on fight break out in the senate when Pompey's supporters passed a motion that called on Caesar to return and surrender or be labeled a traitor and condemned to death. Caesar's supporters did not take this well, as might be expected. A second fights ensues (but just outside the Senate House and not triggered by political reasons) before Antony tries to enter the Senate to try to veto the motion again, as the previous session was resumed due to a technicality. The fights actually prevented Mark Antony from vetoing the motion, which was what Pompey wanted in the first place and make a perfect Casus Belli for the Civil War, as People's Tribune were inviolable The motion was supposed to show Caesar he was alone, nothing more and was not expected nor wanted to be approved. Altough the die-hard optimates did in fact wanted to destroy Caesar bluntly so it was not a total blunder to everyone.
The show also depicted Caesar's assassination, of course. And there was a scene where Cicero sent a message to be read in the Senate in his absence, which turned out to be a scathing attack on Antony. Antony demanded that the clerk read out the whole thing and then bludgeoned the poor bastard to death with the scroll.
Antony previously had pretended he was apalled by this trope, but in his usual unsincere but lovable fashion he was only using stealth puns or indirect insults.
"You boys play too rough for me. Knives in the Senate House? I didn't know you had it in you"
Book Ends: The series begins and ends with the newsreader announcing that there is a reward for a missing slave, "stolen or absconded." It is probably meant to imply that despite all the goings on in the show (several wars, much drama and the Republic being reorganized into The Empire), for the common people things have changed not at all.
Break the Cutie: Subverted with Lucius Vorenus. He is a dour straight man prone to flying off the handle at the slightest hint of dishonesty. He eventually snaps. Octavia breaks, but eventually snaps back into a less stressed version of herself.
Implied when Cleopatra calls her brother her husband. This one is Truth in Television.
Butt Monkey: Lepidus, who is remembered primarily as the least important member of the Second Triumvirate, is treated as such on the show. His own army abandons him for Marc Antony, he's generally kept out of the loop and when he starts talking people usually just ignore him.
Chekhov's Gun: The truth about Vorenus' grandson is later used by Caesar's would be murderers to get Vorenus out of the picture.
Chess Master: Subverted with Julius Caesar, who lets his empathy get in the way. Octavian, however, manipulates everyone like a ruthless genius. Atia likes to think she's this but since her plans fail at least half the time and she seems to act on whim a lot she's more of a Smug Snake.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Servilia is tortured by Atia's men in Season Two. Torture methods included gang rape and partial flaying.
Country Matters: Many, many times. The most memorable is when Mark Antony's slave writes a letter to Caesar, saying "...and the Tribune's behavior was just as offensive as you thought". While the slave writes that, we hear Antony having rough sex in with Atia the background while roaring "JUNO'S CUNT!"
Corrupt Church: The augurs qualify, if only because their leader takes bribes.
Cosmic Plaything: Lucius "Fortune pisses on me again" Vorenus. The gods seem to take perverse pleasure in putting him into awful situations and having him escape by the skin of his teeth, only to wind up in another mess, and occasionally happiness is dangled before him, only to be snatched away. In the first series, he even gets offered a position in the senate, no less! But once again, fate and patrician politcal machinations conspire to tear his life apart at a critical moment.
Cultured Warrior: Lucius Vorenus. He often cites examples from Roman history during his Honor Before Reason rants, sometimes talks about other cultures (eg. the Egyptian gods) as if he's read up about them and the reason he was sent on the mission to find Caesar's stolen eagle in the first place was because his superior officer thought he was clever.
Dawson Casting: Early in the series, 16-year-old Max Pirkis played then 11-year-old Octavian. By the time his character's age caught up with him in season 2, he looked too young to play an adult Octavian, so they replaced him with 27-year-old Simon Woods starting at an episode where Octavian should be 21.
Turned into a Running Gag in an episode, where multiple severed heads are displayed on spikes above the door of a building because the owners of the heads kept pissing the wrong people off.
Vorenus keeps the severed head of Erastes Fulmen during one bad case of Heroic BSOD.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Many, but most notably in one situation where Lucius Vorenus decides that the most ethical thing to do is kill a little boy. It's heartbreaking to see how torn he is between "doing the right thing" and killing his wife's bastard, and listening to his instinct to not kill a child. The series might just be the single best example for this trope ever to appear on TV. To establish the mood, the very first episode has one of the main characters crucifying prisoners of war. He's one of the (somewhat) good guys.
Another example: Atia arguing with her daughter Octavia over who shall kill Octavia before the mob breaks through the gates. Octavia doesn't want her mother to kill her simply because they are still angry with each other. That they should all commit suicide is not disputed. Atia orders her slave to kill her if she is not able to herself, and orders the slave to kill himself right afterward, since it would be inappropriate for him to live on. He obediently agrees.
Another example, Niobe: "Love doesn't come unbidden, you must work for her. Strange marriage it would be if you loved each other from the start."
Atia sending Servilia the gift of a naked slave, picked because of his large genitals. "A large penis is always welcome!"
When coupling, having servants in the room to fan you and hand you water is a must.
Pullo's mother and father were slaves, yet he owns a slave himself. The learned Posca is a slave, which doesn't seem to bother him; his living standard is much higher than that of most free men. When he is freed he purchases slaves. The institution of slavery is never in question.
Attia chastises her teenage son for not having enough sex. She even forces him to eat sheep testicles to make him more virile, and eventually insists that he visit a brothel so he won't dishonor his family by being a virgin.
Democracyis Bad : In the initial narration it is stated that Rome -a Republic with many democratic traits- cannot govern itself. Magistrates are elective but many of the characters work to avoid what they call "rule of the mob", consider elections as a formality, just a matter of bribes and demagoguery and some are deeply offended when the Senate becomes less restrictive and incorporates pleb citizens and non-roman ones. Nobody really believes in democracy anyway, everything is done behind the scenes by the oligarchy, although the caesarians are somehow the people's party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populares) as they draw a lot of their power from the plebs.
Staunch legalist Vorenus is disgusted when he discover the fraud about Roman democracy but Posca convinces him it's for the best.
"The people are not crying out for clean elections, they're crying out for stability and peace. They're crying out for jobs and food and clean water...You can do great things for your people"
Antony plays the elections card when negotiating the aftermath of Caesar's assasination."Messy things elections" The conspirators are horrified as they would have to validate their taken for granted powers. They reach a compromise and no democracy is needed.
By the end of the show the city is ruled by a sole dictator, and the order is achieved. (In Real Life an unprecedented era of prosperity ensued, the Pax Augusta)
Determinator: Cleopatra. "I must have him or I will die... So I will have him."
The Dog Bites Back: Timon to Attia, when Attia tries to force him to murder a captive Servilia.
"I am NOT a fucking animal!"
Downer Ending: Very narrowly averted. The series was originally supposed to end after one season, with Caesar's murder being the Grand Finale. That means that the Season 1 finale, where Vorenus' wife kills herself in front of him and their children, and Brutus' mom strongarms him into orchestrating his best friend's murder, was originally going to be the finale for the entire series. As bittersweet as the real ending was, it could have been much worse.
Driven to Suicide: Many characters, most of them historical examples.
Easily Forgiven: Caesar can be ruthless but manages to fit this trope fairly well. He spares Vorenus and Pullo on one occasion (possibly more, but I can't remember) and his response to Brutus and Cicero trying to surrender is to hug them, apologise to Brutus while kissing his cheek, beg them to tell him that Pompey, an even bigger enemy, is still alive, and then, drag them off to have food since it must have been awhile since they had a decent meal. More than one character points out that forgiving people is Caesar's shtick, doing double duty as a way to be seen as a Reasonable Authority Figure and to make people beholden to him.
The Empire. The ur-example, although we don't actually get there until the very end of the series, in an absolutely spine-chilling moment when the true extent of Octavian's power finally becomes clear.
Pullo breaking formation to kick some Gaul ass, then quipping "I was just beginning to enjoy myself!" when his superiors are done whipping him for insubordination.
Vorenus eagerly anticipating seeing his wife again, then flying into a rage and calling her a whore when he suspects that she might have been unfaithful.
Attia forcing her daughter to divorce the man she loves on the off chance that Pompey might marry her, then calling her a "torpid little she-cow" when the plan fails.
Octavian condescendingly telling Pullo that he's "a Roman citizen of noble birth" while he's hog-tied in the dirt, then calmly beating the snot out of one of his disabled captors and singlehandedly deducing Caesar's battle strategy—all in the two minutes after he's freed.
Even Evil Has Standards: Erastes Fulman, the Roman equivalent of a mob boss, flies into a rage when he hears that Mark Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral incited a riot. Amusingly enough, he threatens to 'disjoint' his men if they participate in the uproar.
Writer Bruno Heller learned that HBO cancelled the show when he was halfway into writing the second season. The result: ~15 years of history compressed into 8 episodes, plus a subplot with Timon and his brother that goes absolutely nowhere. (Since then HBO execs admitted that the cancellation was probably a not a good idea.)
When the series first aired the BBC edited the first three episodes down to just two, without the director's knowledge. The official reason given was that the BBC felt British viewers were already familiar with Roman history and so a lot of the background information was unnecessary
Femme Fatale: Atia yet again. Gaia and Cleopatra count as well.
Friendship Moment: Vorenus and Pullo have a ton of these, but Brutus and Cassius have one as well.
Foe Ya Y: Antony flirts with almost everyone, including the people he threatens. With Brutus, in particular, he often seems to veer into pigtail pulling territory. If only the show had included the historical account of him wrapping Brutus's dead body in his purple mantle...
Genre Savvy: Zigzagged with Caesar. He spared Vorenus and Pullo despite letting Pompey escape because they both managed to survive unlikely things. He also sent the two on an important mission to get Cleopatra. On the other hand, he ignored warnings of a bad omen which lead to his assassination. But, then again...
Going Native : Lucius Vorenus is complimented in Egypt by Atia for totally averting this and staying properly Roman; the other Roman officials including triumvire Mark Antony did not, a thing would be used politically against him, as happened in Real Life.
The Gump: Vorenus and Pullo. One episode is even called "How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic."
Guyliner: On Marc Antony, when he's in Egypt. YUM.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Erastes Fulmen is always either boisterously Affably Evil or seething with rage. One of his funniest moments is when he rages at a slave who whistles: "For fuck's sake, stop that Teutonic droning! If you have to whistle like someone's bum-boy, at least whistle a Roman song!"
Octavian and Livia seem to fit this trope, in a very twisted version of it.
Happiness in Slavery: Posca enjoys a trusted position as Caesar's slave and there is clearly considerable affection between the two, to the extent that Posca weeps bitterly over Caesar's death and Caesar explicitly freed him in his will.
Heroic BSOD: Once the Unstoppable Rage has worn off, Vorenus has one of these after believing his whole family is dead. Pullo also has one towards the end of Season One when Vorenus rejects him.
Historical Domain Character: Easily half the major characters. Technically even Vorenus and Pullo, though in their case it was simply taking the names of two of Caesar's real centurions and creating the characters from whole cloth.
Info Dump: Octavian's informed monologue about the events of the first episode not only filled in the finer political points of the episode to Pullo and Vorenus but the audience as well.
Interplay of Sex and Violence: More than once, especially with Pullo and Gaia (they come close to It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It) and with Octavian and his wife Livia—he flat-out tells her that he will beat her occasionally during their marriage because it gives him sexual pleasure, and she seems to be into it later on.
Kent Brockman News: The Forum newsreader remains the same through the series and his news are nothing but pure propaganda for whoever is in charge at the moment. The news are often followed by advertisements read in the same hamming tone.
Licensed Game: CDX (UK version) is a point-and-click adventure with full-motion FMV that takes the premise that the lead is a freelance props buyer, after recently working for the BBC on "Rome", has a dagger some very nasty people want. It's surprisingly good.
Loads and Loads of Characters. But even with the sizable cast, several important historical characters were left out, such as Scribonia (Octavian's wife before Livia), his daughter Julia, Livia's second son Drusus, Octavia's first husband Claudius Marcellus and her children of that marriage prior to her marriage to Antony. Had the show continued with those people absent, it would have created a lot of problems.
Longest Pregnancy Ever: Eirene tells Pullo of her pregnancy during historical events that occur around 42 B.C. Judging by other historical events, like the betrothal of Octavian and Livia, she is still pregnant in 39 or 38 B.C. This is reportedly due to the necessary rewriting of the last few scripts, see Too Good to Last and Executive Meddling on this page.
Made of Plasticine: The gladiator sequence. The Rule Of Cool excuses it, but it's not that easy to sever someone's head when all you're using is a blunt shield.
The Mafia: Erastes Fulmen and later Lucius Vorenus lead the collegia, gangs who are the ancient predecessors of the Italian Mafia.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: Atia firmly believes this to be true. Which is why she arranges for Octavian to visit a brothel, so that he can become a real man.
Atia: You will penetrate somebody today or I shall burn your wretched books at the yard.
Nice Guy: Agrippa in the second season. In a cast of characters including Antony, Octavian, Atia, Servilia, and Vorenus, Agrippa's behavior is chivalrous by comparison, especially if it involves Octavia.
No Sympathy: When Octavian is taken to the whore house for his first ever boning, he strikes up a conversation with the prostitute. She relates her story of how her father and brothers were killed and she was sold into slavery, eventually ending up working at a whore house in Rome. For a moment Octavian's sympathies appear to be stirred; that is until he starts undoing his belt and telling her to get on her hands and knees. This actually very aptly foreshadows what kind of person he becomes later in the series.
Not so Above It All: Lucius Vorenus, though rather than be above the silliness he was above the corruption. Vorenus eventually goes from being a honorable soldier to the Godfather of Rome's criminal underworld.
Not So Stoic : Prophesied by Mark Antony but averted, Vorenus is the only one who does not fall into debauchery in the Aegyptian Palace and stays "true roman"
Antony: You won't turn to drink, will you? You stoic types often do when disappointed in life.
Odd Couple: Vorenus and Pullo, Octavia and Servilia.
One Gaius Limit: Technically, Octavian would have been called "Gaius" by his family and close friends in Real Life. He's always referred to as "Octavian" to avoid confusion with his great uncle.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Kevin McKidd as Lucius Vorenus affects a vaguely middle-class English accent, but you can hear his Scottish coming through a lot, especially when he's angry.
The Other Darrin: A mix between types 2 and 3 for Octavian, as he is heard talking off-screen to a reaction shot of Pullo before being revealed. Pullo seems to take a minute to recognize him, and then they move on like nothing happened. Justified as the series covers over 20 years of history, and the original Octavian looked too young to play himself as an adult.
The Plan: Julius Caesar engages in one of these, and so does Octavian.
A Plague on Both Your Houses: After the death of her son and the extinction of her political cause (partly due to Atia's machinations), Servilia goes to Atia's house with a knife, chants incessantly until Atia comes out to confront her. Then, with the full attention of everybody around, she indulges in a lengthy curse of Atia, damning her to have nothing but "bitterness and despair" for the rest of her life. To seal the deal, she then stabs herself, with her servant following suit. While Atia achieves the goal she's been aiming for the entire series, she finds it's Lonely at the Top.
Antony: Now that is an exit!
Product Placement: An in-universe example; the Forum newsreader often punctuates his news stories with commercials shouted at the top of his lungs.
This month's public bread is provided by theCapitoline Brotherhood of Millers! The Brotherhood uses only the finest flour! True Roman bread for true Romans.
Protagonist Centred Morality: Titus Pullo is a rapist and multiple murderer but is presented as heroic because he is a loyal friend to Vorenus. This is entirely deliberate, since raping the enemy's women was completely normal behavior for Roman legionnaires.
Put on a Horse: Timon leaves to live in Jerusalem after he fails to assassinate King Herod.
Reality Is Unrealistic: Egypt was a Hellenistic country at that time, and at least the royalty and palaces would have looked more like Rome than old Egypt. But it's hard to tell how many viewers would have known that.
However, by Cleopatra's time, the Ptolemies had really assimilated to Egyptian culture, and considered themselves Egyptians rather than Greeks. They were big on bringing back a lot of the trappings surrounding traditional Egyptian royalty, going so far as to name themselves Pharaohs and therefore gods.
Some nitpicky fan brought up how anachronistic it is for the women have shaved legs. While this easily falls under Acceptable Breaks from Reality, the makers of the show mentioned learning that upper-class women in Rome actually did shave their legs using sharpened seashells.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Octavian and Mark Antony fit this trope rather well in the second season.
Right Through His Pants: Averted. To say the least. Brutus, Mark Antony and Pullo all have scenes involving full frontal nudity (and Brutus became a lot more popular because of it), while many others are shown naked but not full frontal.
Rousing Speech: Many, but special mention to Julius Caesar's speech just before he marches on the walled capital Rome with only an armed gang. And wins. Brilliantly subverted for Antony's speech after Caesar's funeral (the one that became known as Shakespeare's famed, although entirely fictional, "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech). We see the results of his speech, and even have several characters describe what happened, but none of the actual speech is shown or heard.
Royal Brat: Ptolemy XIII, and in the second season, Caesarion. Nothing makes a Royal Brat bigger than telling him he is a god since birth.
Rule Of Cool: The producers admitted that they ignored Atia's historical date of death because they wanted to keep the darkly awesome character around.
Self Harm: Octavia is seen cutting herself, and later her sleeves are pulled up to show the injuries.
Shout Out: After the shipwreck of Lucius and Titus's fleet, the two characters devise a means of escape from their desert island which will be very familiar to anyone who's read Watchmen.
Shoot The Messenger: Or, if you're Marc Antony, beat his brains out with the scroll he was reading from.
Stuffed into the Fridge: Eirene, though it's possible that she just outlived her narrative usefulness.
Suicide By Legionnaire: After all is lost at Philippi, Brutus charges the enemy army all by himself, taking care to take off his armor first.
Suicide Pact: Antony and Cleopatra, obviously. The show alters the conventional story a bit, though, by having Cleopatra fake her death off-screen, causing Antony to kill himself for real so she could sell him out to Octavian and save herself. But when she realizes that Octavian is a coldhearted badass who can't be persuaded, she kills herself as well.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Memmio to Erastes Fulmen, with even both characters being played by actors that look very much like each other. A weird example since Erastes Fulmen's "departure" was a natural part of the script, rather than a last minute addition.
Tactical Withdrawal: Pompey says that he only needs to stomp his feet, and legions would spring up all over Italy. The first thing Pompey does when Caesar crosses the Rubicon river with "only an armed gang" is to run away from Rome.
Take Our Word for It: Many of the large, famous battles. The battle which forces Pompey to flee to Egypt is basically a hazy shot of a few soldiers fighting. The scene later on where he explains what happened by drawing in the dirt with a stick is actually a much more effective representation.
Thanatos Gambit: When Vorenus confronts Erastes Fulmen to find out his children's whereabouts, Erastes tells him that he raped and murdered them, even though he actually sold them into slavery. Vorenus kills him in a fit of rage, and doesn't find out what really happened to his children until much later. Erastes knew that Vorenus would kill him either way, so he lied to prevent him from being able to rescue his children.
Underestimating Badassery: Erastes Fulmen to Vorenus, repeatedly. Fulmen shows up with his gang of thugs and tries to intimidate Vorenus on a few occasions; when he finally crosses the line, Vorenus and Pullo kill every last one of them without breaking sweat.
Unstoppable Rage: Pullo and Vorenus, more than once. But the stand-out example is when Vorenus slaughters Erastes Fulmen's entire gang.
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The series is quite loose on many aspects of history. Some of them are forgiveable for the sake of dramatic/artistic license, but others are questionable. It may work better if you think of the series as a sort of "Rome, as seen by Romans." There are all sorts of oddities in their interpretation of other cultures (the wild German cavalrymen, the long-haired Gauls, the dark, effeminate Egyptians) but it is entirely possible to look at these oddities as a dramatization of "Roman Stereotypes."
The real Atia, besides being a dull Roman matron, died one year after Caesar and thus shouldn't have been around for the second season. Brutus did not suicidally charge the enemy at Phillipi, but rather had a slave kill him.
The Unfair Sex: Very much averted. There are plenty of ruthless female characters such as Atia, Servilia, Gaia and Cleopatra and even the more sympathetic women like Niobe and Octavia do some highly questionable things
The Voiceless: A viewer could be forgiven for thinking Vorenus' younger daughter is totally mute. She makes only the slightest of sounds on very rare occasions.
Word Of God from the DVD commentary is the actress who played her the longest was Italian and refused to learn English lines phonetically. Rather than argue with a little kid, they simply cut out her dialogue and even Lampshaded it later.
Pullo: She still doesn't say much, but she can give such a look . . .
We Named The Monkey Jack: When Vorenus brings home the one little boy who survived the wasting disease that killed the rest of his slaves, the girls coo over him and one of them says, "We'll call him Rubio after my pigeon that died."
In the aftermath of Caesar's death, his heirs Octavian and Mark Antony become enemies over time. When Antony steps all over the Senate and takes his legions north to seize Gaul for himself, Octavian joins forces with the Senate (run by sympathizers of Caesar's murderers) to crush Antony's rebellion. Antony is defeated, but Octavian turns on his allies by using his new position of Consul to take control of the Senate and make Rome his own dictatorship. As Brutus begins marching on Rome, he allies with Antony once again, because it's the only way they can survive. After winning the battle, Octavian and Antony are now joint dictators of Rome. But Octavian then blackmails Antony into leaving Rome and taking up his seat of power in Egypt. Over the years, Antony and Cleopatra provoke him into declaring war, which he does. He wins this war, and ends up as the first Emperor of the Roman Empire.
You Have To Have Jews: the Jewish community in Rome gets a fair share of screentime.
You Just Told Me: Used several times, first by Atia to expose Octavia's relationship to Agrippa, and by an Egyptian guard to expose an undercover Caesarion.
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