"Rome"
Philippi (2007)

Director:

Roger Young

Writers:

John Milius (creator) and
William J. MacDonald (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Rome" (2005)

Original Air Date:

18 February 2007 (Season 2, Episode 6)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | Romance | War

Plot:

Cicero is finally undone by his duplicity in the form of Titus Pullo, acting upon Octavian's request to assassinate all supporters of Brutus in Rome...

Plot Keywords:

Fire | Sadism | Bittersweet | Fate | Letter

Cast

Kevin McKidd	...	Lucius Vorenus
Ray Stevenson	...	Titus Pullo
Polly Walker	...	Atia of the Julii
Tobias Menzies	...	Marcus Junius Brutus
Kerry Condon	...	Octavia of the Julii
Simon Woods	...	Gaius Octavian Caesar
Zuleikha Robinson	...	Gaia
David Bamber	...	Marcus Tullius Cicero
Guy Henry	...	Cassius
Allen Leech	...	Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Alex Wyndham	...	Gaius Maecenas
Chiara Mastalli	...	Eirene
Camilla Rutherford	...	Jocasta
Alan Williams	...	Tevye
Lee Boardman	...	Timon

Runtime:

56 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:TV-MA

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Goofs:

Factual errors: The hands of Cicero were in fact not nailed to the doors of the Senate house but to the 'rostra', the speaker's scaffold on the Forum.

Quotes:

[Pullo shows up to Cicero's villa to assassinate him]
Titus Pullo: You Cicero, then?
[Cicero turns slowly]
Marcus Tullius Cicero: And what is your name, young man?
Titus Pullo: Titus Pullo, captain of the Fourteenth.
Marcus Tullius Cicero: Oh... the famous Titus Pullo. I'm honoured.
Titus Pullo: Likewise. Everyone's heard of Cicero.
Marcus Tullius Cicero: I daresay your work today will earn you immortality.
Titus Pullo: How's that?
Marcus Tullius Cicero: Well, I'll be in all the history books. No doubt my killer's name will also live for eternity.
[...]

Disappointing.

(Contains spoilers).

Whilst I love 'Rome' as a series and have been able to live with the historical inaccuracies in the cause of creative licence up until this point their mauling of the battle of Philippi and rewriting of the deaths of Brutus and Cassius was a step too far. I mean if they were allowed to fictitiously go down heroically fighting why not have given Caesar a sword and let him take out a few conspirators before being overwhelmed? It's not as if their real deaths by suicide weren't dramatic/tragic/moving enough without ridiculously hollywoodising them and as for the battle itself, while I understand the constraints of cost even in show with such a healthy budget, a mere hint of it lasting two days during the first of which Octavion was essentially defeated by Brutus would have been nice.

Another problem I had was Pullo chatting nonchalantly to Cicero before murdering him, he came across as a completely unbalanced psychotic rather than the only mildly unbalanced psychotic we've all grown to love.

Great series, bad episode.