Eirene (character of Rome)

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Rome character
Eirene
Name	Eirene
Portrayed by	Chiara Mastalli
Class	Freedman
Family	wife of Titus Pullo
Allies	Titus Pullo
Enemies	Gaia
Appearances	1-03"An Owl in a Thornbush" 1-04 "Stealing from Saturn" 1-05 "The Ram Has Touched the Wall" 1-06 "Egeria" 1-09 "Utica" 1-10 "Triumph" 1-12 "Kalends of February" 2-01 "Passover" 2-02 "Son of Hades"

Eirene is a fictional character from the HBO/BBC original television series Rome, played by Chiara Mastalli.

[edit] Personality

Quiet and unassuming, Eirene is somewhat of a mystery. Although Eirene's love belonged to a slave who was killed, she has forgiven and married his murderer, Titus Pullo. Although Eirene truly loves Pullo, she is disatisfied with continually being left behind by him. Superstitious, as most ancient Romans were, Eirene wishes to leave the house she was enslaved in because it has become "a house of death." Seeing her mistress Niobe of the Voreni die there, as well as the decapitated head of Erastes Fulmen on the floor in a corner, she believes any baby conceived or born there would be deformed.

"Eirene" is Greek for peace; a Roman would arbitrarily give a slave a name appropriate to their perceived qualities - Onesimus, Latin for useful, is another.

[edit] Character history

Kidnapped, brutalized, and tied to an ox-drawn wagon by soldiers fleeing the city of Rome, Eirene is rescued by Titus Pullo against the wishes of his superior officer and friend, Lucius Vorenus. After freeing her, Pullo discovers that the cart she was tied to contains the missing treasury gold stolen by Pompey's recruits.

Now the slave of a love-struck Pullo, Eirene immediately goes missing after a night of drunken debauchery. Finding her the next day, Vorenus must pay the drinking debt owed by Pullo to have her released. Knowing that he will be returning to the Legion, Pullo asks Vorenus to take her. After some convincing, Lucius takes Eirene to his wife, Niobe, who has been asking for more slaves. Niobe is Suspicious of Eirene. Believing she may be spying on her for Pullo, she initially distrusts her.

When he returns from war, Pullo frees Eirene from slavery, planning to marry her, but Pullo does not know she is in love with another. When he discovers this, Pullo kills his rival on a jealous impulse, in front of Eirene. She hates Pullo for the murder, even contemplating killing a convalescing Pullo in his bed. Time and Pullo's repentance quenches her anger, and she marries him in the beginning of the second season. Eirene moves to the Collegium with Pullo and Vorenus, and later becomes pregnant.

Threatened by Gaia's apparent interest in Pullo, Eirene confronts her in Death Mask and tells her to fetch wood. Gaia refuses and insults Eirene, who demands that Pullo beat the unruly slave. Pullo roughs Gaia up, but with her encouragement ends up having rough sex with her as well. Later, Gaia acquires abortion-inducing herbs. She gives them to Eirene in a cup of tea in A Necessary Fiction; Eirene miscarries, and then dies of apparent blood loss. On her death bed, Eirene insists that Pullo bury her as is done in her country (rather than cremate her, as per Roman custom.) During Pullo's eulogy her Germanic origins are vaguely revealed: her birth name was Adela (a Germanic name) and her homeland was somewhere "beyond the Rhine".