Rome: 'How Titus Pullo Brought Down The Republic.'
February 21, 2025 6:40 PM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
"After eight years away at war, Lucius Vorenus returns to a homecoming he is not expecting. Titus Pullo's actions might soon become trouble for the republic. Meanwhile, Mark Antony enters public office as Tribune for the people and Caesar begins to mobilize his troops for the return trip to Rome."
(from DVD header)
The Late, great John Boswall as the Curial Magistrate was brilliant.
(Cicero, Pompey and others seek guidance from Curial Magistrate on the procedures, in this case, if the session had ended before Anthony had a chance to veto the Senate's motion declaring Caesar an enemy of the people.)
Pompey: "Let me be clear with you. I do not wish that this motion as important as this should stand on a mere trick of procedure."
Curiall Magistrate: "Trick, you say? This is a religious matter.
There are no tricks in religion"
Cicero then grabs him by the robes
The Late, great John Boswall as the Curial Magistrate was brilliant.
(Cicero, Pompey and others seek guidance from Curial Magistrate on the procedures, in this case, if the session had ended before Anthony had a chance to veto the Senate's motion declaring Caesar an enemy of the people.)
Pompey: "Let me be clear with you. I do not wish that this motion as important as this should stand on a mere trick of procedure."
Curiall Magistrate: "Trick, you say? This is a religious matter.
There are no tricks in religion"
Cicero then grabs him by the robes
I love how they make the alien familiar. Vorenus is a hugely different moral person than most people today would understand, and yet the show can bring you along. It's not perfect, but you can sink into the lived in world and understand why characters are making choices, even as you might irl deplore their slave-taking. It's hard to explain I guess, but this is an amazing episode to explore a very different world.
posted by Carillon at 1:36 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 1:36 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Interesting post by Bret Devereaux On Roman Values.
posted by porpoise at 1:30 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by porpoise at 1:30 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Ah, good old trepanation.
I enjoyed the depiction of (robust) Roman politics.
Interesting that more soldiers die of the flux (dysentery) than in fighting.
posted by porpoise at 2:18 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
I enjoyed the depiction of (robust) Roman politics.
Interesting that more soldiers die of the flux (dysentery) than in fighting.
posted by porpoise at 2:18 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Having just watched The Knick, I am impressed that trepanation worked. Though our two heroes do seem to have Wolverine powers as Vorenus is stabbed then mostly fine.
Dysentery and poor nutrition were the great killers of armies. Supply lines ruled all. And not the most sanitary times then you are marching around, drinking new water sources, camping and then all shitting in hastily dug locations.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 9:50 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Dysentery and poor nutrition were the great killers of armies. Supply lines ruled all. And not the most sanitary times then you are marching around, drinking new water sources, camping and then all shitting in hastily dug locations.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 9:50 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
not the most sanitary times
Yeah, they had not known about washing hands - and the doctor specifically called out that there would be "bad" puss before the "good" puss comes, if Pullo was to survive. I have no idea what the survival rate of trepanation in that era was.
The way it was filmed, that there were specialized and advanced instruments for use in trepanation, I'm not surprised that Pullo survived.
I'm more worried about Vorenus getting stabbed in the guts, possibly rupturing some guts leading to sepsis.
posted by porpoise at 10:16 PM on February 22
Yeah, they had not known about washing hands - and the doctor specifically called out that there would be "bad" puss before the "good" puss comes, if Pullo was to survive. I have no idea what the survival rate of trepanation in that era was.
The way it was filmed, that there were specialized and advanced instruments for use in trepanation, I'm not surprised that Pullo survived.
I'm more worried about Vorenus getting stabbed in the guts, possibly rupturing some guts leading to sepsis.
posted by porpoise at 10:16 PM on February 22
The Little Fishing Boy's only line was cut in final edit:
"Oi! You lot! What you think you're doin', crossin' THIS river? Why you're violatin' centuries of democratic norms, you are!"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:37 AM on March 3
"Oi! You lot! What you think you're doin', crossin' THIS river? Why you're violatin' centuries of democratic norms, you are!"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:37 AM on March 3
I couldn’t -watch- it but that trepanation certainly had a lot of specialized gear. Alas I will have to stay merely intrigued; looking it up seems like a very bad plan.
posted by janell at 10:06 PM on March 7
posted by janell at 10:06 PM on March 7
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posted by Balna Watya at 12:29 AM on February 22 [4 favorites]