The Ram has Touched the Wall
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| The Ram Has Touched the Wall | |
|---|---|
| ' | |
| Season | 1 (2005) |
| Episode | 5 (HBO; see BBC editing) |
| Air date(s) | September 25, 2005 (HBO) November 23, 2005 (BBC) |
| Writer(s) | Bruno Heller |
| Director | Allen Coulter |
| Setting | Rome and Italia |
| Time frame | Between Jan 10th - Feb 30th, 49 BC See also: Chronology of Rome |
| Link | HBO episode summary |
| Prev: Stealing from Saturn Next: Egeria I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII |
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"The Ram Has Touched the Wall" is the fifth episode of the first season of the television series Rome.
Pompey must stall for time, and his supporters urge for peace with Caesar. Caesar and Antony must balance that which is expedient with how their actions will appear to the people. Atia's jealousy of Servilia will lead to actions that spell humiliation for Caesar, and despair for Servilia. A sudden reversal of fortune forced Vorenus to choose whether it is to the Legions or the underworld of Rome that he will sell his integrity. Servilia's rage turns her into dark paths of revenge. Niobe faces the possibility of having to lose her son, and has her secret fall into the hands of those who do not know what to do with it. Pullo is retained to educate Octavian, but it is questionable as to who will teach and who will learn.
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[edit] Plot summary
Chased to the Italian coast by Caesar's legions, Pompey and the senior senators debate their response to Caesar's truce offer. They finally agree to a "cessation of hostilities" based on his terms, though Pompey vehemently insists to his men the agreement is not a surrender. He simply needs time to bring fresh troops from Greece and Spain.
When Caesar and Mark Antony read the response, they decide their rival is trapped and contemplate their triumphant rule over Rome -- with Pompey withdrawing to Spain. The only problem now is public perception. "If I am not a tyrant, if I merely seek legitimacy, why would I not accept such favorable terms?" Caesar inquires. It is Posca who concocts his excuse: Pompey will not meet him in person, therefore the offer cannot be accepted. (This pleases Caesar: "Hoi polloi can understand a reason like that. He refuses to meet me face to face. Man to man.")
On a tip from her kitchen staff - who witnessed young Octavian emerging from a closet with Caesar after his seizure - Atia congratulates her son for seducing his great uncle. "I am not clear that it's decent...but who's to say what's decent in times like these?" she muses, delighting in the thought of the power she will now wield. "Let's see Servilia compete with a soft young boy like you." To set his mother straight, Octavian divulges that Caesar has an affliction, but stops short of explaining any further.
With his slaves from Gaul due to be sold soon, Vorenus announces to his family that he will soon have enough money for his daughter's dowry, allowing her to take baby Lucius to her young husband and start a proper married life. This thrills Vorena the Elder while distressing Niobe, who stares anxiously at her infant son.
But Vorenus's slaves did not fare well while being held by the slave dealer - all but one of the 12 succumbed to the black blood flu, and the sole survivor is a sickly four-year-old boy. Vorenus has no choice but to take him home and nurse him to health, in the hopes that he can sell him and recoup some of his losses.
Caesar, meanwhile, has been declining invitations from Atia, while accepting them from Servilia, leading his men to suspect her as the reason he is stalling an attack on Pompey. Mark Antony reveals as much to Atia during a late night visit, confirming her worst fears.
Since he's not Caesar's soft young lover, Atia enlists Pullo to teach her son the "masculine arts," which proves to be a challenge. Exertion gives the privileged boy a fever, and he feels he can only kill people who aren't fighting back. Pullo decides to seek the boy's advice on whether he should tell a friend about his suspicions concerning the man's wife. Octavian reasons that "without facts you must remain silent."
Oblivious to any troubles with his family, Vorenus is preoccupied with his finances, and approaches Erastes for a loan to buy more slaves. Instead he gets a job offer - to accompany the businessman on his trades as a sort of bodyguard. During his first assignment, however, Erastes asks Vorenus to kill a man who has failed to pay him. He refuses and quits.
Across the whitewashed walls of the city, several crude cartoons have been drawn of a man having sex with a woman - the names Caesar and Servilia etched under each naked form. As Caesar and his procession make their way through the crowded streets, Calpurnia carried high on a litter, raucous laughter breaks out as they pass. When Caesar and his wife take notice of the drawings, the procession abruptly turns back to the villa, where a humiliated Calpurnia threatens her husband with divorce. This alarms both Caesar and his chief attendant. "We cannot divorce now," Posca tells him, "Her family influence will be critical."
Caesar's next visit to Servilia is not so friendly. He coldly informs her they are finished. He is heading south to pursue Pompey and they will not be seeing each other again. Servilia trembles in disbelief. "Be assured, it is not that I do not love you...I must do what is right for the Republic." With this Servilia bursts into a rage, attacking her lover until she draws blood from his cheek. Caesar knocks her to the floor, and as she sobs uncontrollably, slaps her twice more before storming out - leaving her sobbing in a heap.
At the end of his rope, Vorenus returns to Mark Antony to tell him he has reconsidered the offer to rejoin Caesar's army. Antony accepts, but only because Caesar has left him in Rome and he needs good men. Vorenus is soon initiated into the Evocati by an elderly priest, who performs an elaborate ceremony at the Temple of Mars.
After learning that Atia was behind the crude graffiti, Servilia decides to seek revenge. Relying on a book of magic, she carves stick figures into lead tablets, then summons the spirits of her ancestors to invoke a curse on both Atia and Caesar - disfiguring the images with slashes as she pleads to for each of them to suffer deeply. "Let his penis wither. Let his bones crack. Let him see his legions drown in their own blood..."
While Servilia is cursing Atia and her children, Octavian is escaping from his mother's villa in the middle of the night - joining Pullo on a secret mission. The two ambush Evander outside his butcher shop, then torture him until he gives up the truth: he was Niobe's lover, and the infant is his. With this second bit of information, Pullo stabs the man repeatedly. After his bloodied body is rolled into the sewer, Octavian warns Pullo to never speak of the incident again. "Vorenus must never know." Pullo nods in silent agreement.
Far south of the city, arriving on a crest above the ocean, Caesar and his legions look out onto an empty camp, nothing but fire rings remaining. They are too late: Pompey and his men have set sail.
[edit] Historical/Cultural background
- The title of the episode is a phrase used by Mark Antony advocating "no mercy" toward Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase is English translation of the Latin "Murum aries attigit" (see De Bello Gallico, Book II, Chapter XXXII). It refers to the policy of not allowing any mercy or surrender to the occupants of a fortification once the battering ram begins the assault on the gates. This policy was to act as a deterrent against resistance to those about to be besieged. It was an incentive for anyone who wasn't absolutely sure that they could withstand the assault to surrender immediately, rather than face the possibility of total destruction.
- Posca mentions that Caesar cannot allow his wife to divorce him - her family's influence is critical. Calpurnia was Calpurnia Pisonis, daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. That would make her father an ex-consul of Rome, as well as an ex-proconsul of Macedonia - clearly a man of political experience and influence. It is also interesting to note that Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus was instrumental in having Marcus Tullius Cicero exiled from Rome for a period in 58 BC and 57 BC. This may explain part of the animosity Marcus Tullius Cicero bears towards Caesar and his family.
- A displeased Mark Antony reduces Lucius Vorenus's signing bonus to 9,000 sestertii - or 2,250 denarii when Vorenus returns to him. The value of the Denarius is discussed in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, but 2,250 denarii would be roughly equal to USD $225,000.
- Towards the end of the episode, Lucius Vorenus re-enlists with the 13th Legion, and is inducted into the ranks of the evocati, who were "career" soldiers that enlisted in the legions after their original "term of service" was up - usually at the request of their commander. The evocati tended to occupy the higher ranking position within the Legion, were released from some of the more menial duties, and were awarded a certain level of respect.
- Mark Antony promotes Lucius Vorenus to the rank of "Prefect, of the first grade". It isn't clear what rank is being awarded here. The rank of Prefect within the legion was roughly that of a Lieutenant Colonel - they occupied positions of authority over a particular aspect of the entire Legion (Praefectus castrorum = camp commandant, Praefectus fabrum = officer in charge of engineers and artisans, Praefectus legionis = equestrian legionary commander, etc.). Regardless of his specific area of responsibility upon re-enlisting in the 13th, Vorenus' new rank is a three grade promotion.
- As part of his induction into the evocati, Vorenus - in full dress armor - sits a vigil in the temple of Mars, Roman god of War.
[edit] Inaccuracies and errors
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- Pompey did not leave for Greece from some beach on the east coast of Italy. He sailed with his troops and the senators from Brindisium (Brindisi), while hard pressed by Caesar and his legions in a skilful withdrawal, while Caesar's forces besieged Brindisium. After Pompey went to Greece, Caesar returned to Rome.
- Cicero, unhappy with Pompey, left Rome after Caesar crossed the Rubicon and went to his estate at Tusculum, because he could not choose. Only some months after Pompey went to Greece, Cicero made his choice and went to Pompey.
- The name Octavian is incorrect, and should be Gaius Octavius instead. In Latin the suffix '-ianus' indicates the original family name after an adoption, as a result of which the adoptive son received the full name of the adoptive father. Accordingly, C. Octavius changed his name to C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus after being adopted and made sole heir in his grand uncle's will (44 BC). As a matter of fact, the future emperor did not like and never himself used the epithet Octavianus, as it pointed at his not being born a patrician.
[edit] Character notes
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[edit] Plot notes
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[edit] Episode characters
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possibly incomplete
See also: Character appearances in Rome
[edit] Main cast
- Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd)
- Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson)
- Gaius Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds)
- Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Kenneth Cranham)
- Atia of the Julii (Polly Walker)
- Marcus Antonius (James Purefoy)
- Marcus Junius Brutus (Tobias Menzies)
- Servilia Caepionis (Lindsay Duncan)
- Niobe (Indira Varma)
- Gaius Octavian (Max Pirkis)
- Octavia of the Julii (Kerry Condon)
- Quintus Pompeius (Rick Warden)
- Marcus Porcius Cato (Karl Johnson)
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (David Bamber)
- Timon (Lee Boardman)
- Eirene (Chiara Mastalli)
