Caesarion (Rome)
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- This article is about a television show. For the historical figure see Caesarion
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| Caesarion | |
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| Lyndsey Marshal as Cleopatra VII Philopator, Queen of Egypt | |
| Season | 1 (2005) |
| Episode | 8 (HBO; see BBC editing) |
| Air date(s) | October 16, 2005 (HBO) December 14, 2005 (BBC) |
| Writer(s) | William J. MacDonald |
| Director | Steve Shill |
| Setting | Ptolemaic Egypt and Rome |
| Time frame | Fall 48 BC through June 47 BC See also: Chronology of Rome |
| Link | HBO episode summary |
| Prev: Pharsalus Next: Utica I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII |
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Caesarion is the eighth episode of the first season of the television series Rome.
Having pursued Pompey into Egypt, Caesar arrives in Alexandria and meets the boy king Ptolemy XIII, who offers the general a surprise gift. Vorenus and Pullo play liberators again, freeing Ptolemy's incarcerated sister Cleopatra. Caesar seeks payment from Egypt for past debts, and ends up forging a strategic union to ensure his legacy.
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[edit] Plot summary
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Please help improve this article by expanding this section. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Caesar and the legions arrive in Alexandria in pursuit of Pompey who sought refuge with his "friends" in Egypt. Caesar, Marc Antony, Titus and Vorenus enter the palace of the Ptolemaic kings. We learn that young King Ptolemy's kingship is in question. In fact his sister (and wife), Cleopatra, has laid claim to the throne and is in rebellion. Howeveer, Ptolemy's adviser and eunuch make light of the situation, claiming it has affected Egypt little.
Young Ptolemy presents Caesar with a large jar containing Pompey's head. Ptolemy claims that the head will be used in an upcoming entertainment, "with wild animals and everything!". This angers Caesar who then insults the young king, calling the Egyptians barbarians and reminds him that Pompey was "a Vassal of Rome". Caesar then demands that the debts of the previous king, Ptolemy's father, be paid immediately, something the royal officials say cannot be done.
Caesar is determined to neutralize the power struggle between Ptolemy and Cleopatra in order to maintain Egyptian grain exports to Rome. So he dispatches Vorenus and Pullo to find Cleopatra in order to resolve the family dispute. Meanwhile, Ptolemy has decided to kill his sister so that the there is no threat of Caesar giving her the throne. Ptolemy and his officials actually know her location and dispatch a group (3) of assassins. Vorenus and Pullo have been waiting for the assassins at the middle of the way in order to follow them to Cleopatra.
As the assassins reach Cleopatra's camp, they speak to the chief servant. The servant requests an audience with Cleopatra who needs to clear her head after smoking opium. When she gives the servant an audience, he informs her that she is time to make herself ready for the afterlife. The three assassins enter and are about to kill Cleopatra when they hear a noise outside. Two assassins attend to the noise while the lead assassin moves toward Cleopatra. Suddenly, Pullo enters through the back of he tent and after a brief fight with the assassin, kills him with several vicious stabs with his dagger.
On the trip back to Alexandria, Cleopatra's slave taunts her about her opium use. Cleopatra responds by having the slave throw away her opium pipe. Cleopatra then speaks of her need to seduce Caesar. "If I cannot, then I am dead." She notes that a sexual union between them would be helpful, but if she could bear him a son, something his three wives could not do, then she would have his allegiance. Noting that now would be the perfect time for her to become pregnant as she is "between the floods", she has her slave invite Vorenus into her tent and orders him to enter her. Vorenus cannot and leaves to order Pullo to "Go to her tent and do as she orders." Pullo is gleefully compliant.
Vorenus and Pullo smuggle Cleopatra into Alexandria concealed in a sack. Caesar is immediately attracted to her. The scenes of them making love are interspersed with scenes of Servilia and Octavia in bed (who don't otherwise appear in this episode). After a short family reunion, Ptolemy's adviser and eunuch are beheaded for "misleading" the King against his sister. Their heads are placed on stakes outside the palace next to the head of the Roman who killed Pompey.
In Rome, Cicero tries to convince Brutus to betray Mark Anthony if Caesar cannot escape Alexandria (he has now been besieged there for almost a year). Mark Anthony enters, announcing he has good news. He then reveals that he knows of Cicero's thoughts of betrayal and warns him that if he ever hears of it again, he will cut off Cicero's "pink hands and nail them to the Senate door." As he is leaving, Brutus reminds him he had good news. Mark Anthony tells them that Caesar and Cleopatra are victorious in Alexandria.
In Alexandria, we see Ptolemy floating facedown in the river, dead. Caesar presents Cleopatra's infant son, Caesarion to his soldiers. As the Legion cheers, Vorenus glares at Pullo, who pauses for a moment and goes on cheering proudly.
[edit] Historical and cultural background
At the time of Caesar's arrival in Egypt, it was undergoing a dynastic dispute among the various siblings of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ptolemy XIII (who was probably being manipulated by his regent Pothinus), Arsinoe IV and Cleopatra VII, were all contesting for rulership.
The god that Titus Pullo finds so unimpressive, the "bastard with a dog's head on him", is the Egyptian god Anubis. The bit of statuary that Lucius Vorenus is sharpening his sword on while he and Pullo wait, wears the "Double Crown" of Upper and Lower Egypt. This means that it is a depiction of a Pharaoh — presumably a fragment of some long-lost royal monument.
[edit] Inaccuracies and errors
Ptolemaic Egypt was a successor state to the empire of Alexander the Great, which spread Greek civilization throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. It was part of the Hellenistic world, ruled by the ethnically Greek Ptolemaic dynasty for over 250 years. While the rulers did portray themselves in local dress on public monuments and at times adopted Egyptian practices to avoid friction with their native Egyptian followers, no ruler before Cleopatra VII had even bothered to learn the Egyptian language. Cleopatra, Ptolemy and their courtiers would have dressed as Greeks. The series instead portrays the court at Alexandria as indigenously Egyptian, making them seem far more exotic to Caesar's Romans than they were. Most of Alexandria's citizens would also have been Greek, not Egyptian. Immigration from the rest of the Greek-speaking world was actively encouraged by the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and non-Greeks were discouraged from living in the central quarters of Alexandria known as Brucheum. The appearance of the Egyptians in the series is unrealistic, as the ancient Egyptians never wore heavy face paint, and the elaborate wigs were uncharacteristic of Egyptian wig styles.
The army of Ptolemaic Egypt followed the Greek model. It would have contained a number of local soldiers, but its elite would have been largely composed of Greeks, and most troops would have worn Greek-style uniforms and armor (see illustration), especially in Alexandria and around the royal palace. The series does not reflect this.
Alexandria itself was a Greek city founded by Alexander the Great. The architecture of the royal palace and the harbor area would have been Greek, not Ancient Egyptian as portrayed in the series.
The dynastic dispute in Egypt is simplified; Arsinoe IV (and her claims) are ignored in the series. While the episode depicts Pullo and Vorenus dumping Cleopatra, laced up in a bag, in front of Julius Caesar, Plutarch records that she had herself rolled up in a Persian carpet which was then presented to Caesar by her servant. Caesarion was the son of Cleopatra VII and Caesar; the events of the episode insinuate that he may actually have been fathered by Pullo. Though Caesar is shown presenting his newborn son to his army, historically Caesar was already back in Rome by the time Caesarion was born.
In the episode, Cleopatra gazes at a coin with Caesar's likeness (and plotting to seduce him; these coins were not minted until later in Caesar's life. Cleopatra also smokes a substance that is presumably opium. While opium seeds were sometimes chewed in the Near East, smoking opium through pipes did not occur until after contact with the New World many centuries later.
Finally, there is no historical evidence to suggest that there was ever a sexual relationship between Servilia Caepionis and Octavia Minor, as is depicted in this episode.
[edit] Character notes
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[edit] Plot notes
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[edit] Episode characters
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Please help improve this article by expanding this section. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
possibly incomplete
See also: Character appearances in Rome
[edit] Main cast
[edit] Guest stars
| Cleopatra played by Lyndsey Marshal. |
[edit] External links
- "Caesarion" at the Internet Movie Database
- Plot Summary at HBO
