Rome 1.05 - The Ram has touched the Wall

Pompey is staring wistfully at the sea, when he receives a message from Caesar offering a truce. Surprisingly, he immediately accepts the offer, but in his reply he says that he won't meet Caesar face to face. Apart from being a personal insult, in Roman law any official agreement required a shaking of hands.

The slaves that Vorenus bought have died of Black Blood Flux. From what I understand, it's an illness of the intestines that causes severe diarrhoea, leading to death by dehydration. The disease receives its name from the diarrhoea being mixed with blood. This leaves Vorenus almost broke. Only one slave, a young boy, has remained healthy. Vorenus takes him home and gives him to his wife Niobe. The boy is too young to work, so he'll be a playmate for his children.

Vorenus needs money, so he accepts a job as a bodyguard for the businessman Erastes Fulmen. In his first job he finds out that he's more of an enforcer. A debtor refuses to pay, so Erastes first orders Vorenus to break his arm, then to kill him. Vorenus has killed many men as a soldier, but he can't bear to do work like this. He quits the job and goes to Mark Anthony to ask to return to the army. He's given the position of an evocatus, a soldier above the centurions. He's also made a prefect, but I haven't been able to figure out what that is. He's also given a signing up bonus of 9000 sestertii, the equivalent of six years wages, which is enough for Vorenus and his family to live comfortably.

Pullo has grown attached to the unnamed slave girl he saw accompanying the grain cart with the treasury money. He wants to buy her, but he doesn't have enough money. That's strange, because Caesar gave him a reward of 10,000 sestertii in the last episode. Has he already lost it by gambling? Vorenus pays for him, and he takes the girl home to his wife. She's reluctant to accept another slave, but Vorenus insists that she'll be a good worker. Pullo is getting soft. He's always been a heartless womaniser, but he has feelings for the girl despite never having slept with her.

Atia hires Pullo as a tutor for her son Octavian. She wants him to teach Octavian manly arts, sich as fighting, skinning animals and copulating. But Octavian already considers Pullo a friend. Pullo asks Octavian for advice. He's seen Evander with Niobe, and he suspects that they're having an affair, but he can't prove it. What should he do? Octavian, in his great wisdom, says that Pullo can't speak to Vorenus about it unless he's absolutely certain. There's an easy way to find out: torture.

Pullo and Octavian sneak out at night and capture Evander. They take him down into the sewers below the city to ask him what he's been doing with Niobe. After having his thumbs cut off he confesses that he's had an affair with her for the last two years, because Niobe assumed her husband was dead. Then he confesses that the new-born baby is his son. Pullo kills him in rage and dumps his body in the water. He agrees with Octavian that Vorenus should never find out about it.

Atia hears about Caesar's affair with Servilia and decides to make it public. She tells her servant Timon to hire people to draw graffiti portraying the two around the city. Caesar sees the drawings when he's riding in a carriage with his wife Calpurnia. She's disgusted and threatens to divorce him. Caesar quickly goes to Servilia and breaks off the relationship, telling her it's for the good of the Republic. That's one way of putting it.

When Caesar receives Pompey's reply he considers the refusal to meet him face to face a rejection of his truce. He leads his army to Corfinium to confront Pompey, but he's already left. Caesar assumes he's sailed to Greece.

To me this seems like a filler episode. Very little of historical importance takes place. It's all about the personal lives of Vorenus, Pullo and Caesar himself.

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