Minor characters of Rome

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There are several minor but significant characters featured in the HBO/BBC/RAI television series Rome.

NOTE: Characters are listed in alphabetical order by character's first/only name

Contents

Caesarion
Caesarion
Gaius Maecenas
Gaius Maecenas
Jocasta
Jocasta
Lepidus
Lepidus
Livia
Livia
Ptolemy  XIII
Ptolemy XIII

  • Alfidia (historically, Aufidia), portrayed by Deborah Moore. The mother of Livia, she is present in A Necessary Fiction when a married Livia catches the eye of young Octavian, and both women are pleased when he insists that Livia divorce her current husband to marry him. Later, in De Patre Vostro, Alfidia lightly questions Octavia's loyalty to her family at dinner, and is present when Atia of the Julii finally puts daughter-in-law Livia in her place.

  • Caesarion (historically, Ptolemy XV of Egypt/Caesarion), seen in the last few minutes of the episode Caesarion as a newborn baby, he is the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. In the storyline it is implied that Caesarion may actually be the son of Titus Pullo. The character returns as a young boy (portrayed by Nicolò Brecci) in the episode Son of Hades, in which Cleopatra asks Mark Antony to declare him Caesar's son (though not his heir). Max Baldry assumes the role in Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus (though he appears briefly in the background of a scene in A Necessary Fiction), in which Caesarion befriends Lucius Vorenus, who is serving Mark Antony in Egypt. Caesarion asks the soldier about his "father"; he of course means Julius Caesar, but Vorenus' answers seem to hint that he believes Pullo to be the boy's father. In the series finale De Patre Vostro (About Your Father), it is made clear that both Pullo and Vorenus believe this to be true, and Cleopatra herself later confirms that Pullo is the father. Vorenus manages to smuggle Caesarion out of the palace as Octavian takes over, knowing Octavian will murder the boy to cement his position as Caesar's heir. Pullo brings his son to Rome under the name Aeneas, and tells Octavian that he has murdered young Caesarion. The series ends with the indication that Pullo is about to tell the boy that he is in fact his father.

  • Jocasta (fictional), played by Camilla Rutherford. Daughter of a wealthy merchant (and thus played as a 'Sloane Ranger' and treated as 'nouveau riche' and socially inferior by Atia), and friend to Octavia; introduced in These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Atia later adds Jocasta's father to the list of nobles Octavian and Mark Antony kill to eliminate resistance and acquire wealth. In Death Mask, Atia arranges for Jocasta's marriage to Posca; Jocasta is delighted with the gifts Posca showers on her in A Necessary Fiction. In Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus Jocasta has joined her husband in his relocation with Mark Antony to Egypt, but both escape back to Rome on Atia and Octavia's ship when Posca realizes that war between Antony and Octavian is inevitable.

  • Ptolemy XIII (historically, Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator), Cleopatra's younger brother, played by Scott Chisolm. Seen in the episode Caesarion. Historically he was as young as is portrayed, and the character's "chubbiness" is a nice allusion to a family trait of the Ptolemaic dynasty as historically attested in their artistic representations, nicknames and in the literary record [2].

The following are mostly the family, slaves and associates of Lucius Vorenus, Niobe and Titus Pullo:

Gaia
Gaia
Lyde
Lyde
Mascius
Mascius
Vorena the Elder
Vorena the Elder
Vorena the Younger
Vorena the Younger

Herod
Herod
Levi
Levi
Merula
Merula
Newsreader
Newsreader

  • Herod (historically, Herod the Great), played by René Zagger, is the Prince of Judea and Tetrarch of Galilee. He comes to Rome in Death Mask to offer Mark Antony a "gift" of gold in exchange for Rome's assistance in Herod's ascension to the throne of Judea. Levi and Timon planned to assassinate him during the marriage festivities of Mark Antony and Octavia; however, the two brothers fell out and the attempt was never made.

  • Levi (fictional), played by Nigel Lindsay. Brother of Timon, outspoken zealot Levi comes to Rome from Jerusalem in Season 2, after getting himself into political trouble in Judea. Religious and resentful of the Romans as well as Jewish collaborators with Rome, he soon helps a troubled and conflicted Timon rediscover his Judaism. Unfortunately, Levi's assassination attempt on Herod of Judea in Death Mask comes to a tragic end.

  • Memmio (fictional). Captain of one of the largest underworld gangs, the Caelians; keeps an uneasy alliance with Vorenus, leader of the Aventine. When it is discovered that he stole gold destined for Antony, Titus Pullo's and Memmio's respective gangs fight and Memmio's tongue is bitten off by Pullo, who then keeps him in a cage to remind others to remain loyal.

  • Merula (fictional), played by Lydia Biondi, is Atia's body-slave.

  • Newsreader (Senate Crier) (fictional), played by Ian McNeice. The closest Rome comes to a narrator, and the mouthpiece for all those otherwise tedious pieces of plot exposition, he reads the pronouncements of the Senate, public service announcements, and the current events of the Republic to the people in the Forum. He often uses dramatic gesticulations when using names of important Romans, like Gaius Julius Caesar. All these pronouncements would also — as portrayed in the series — be displayed in written form on the Senate-House door, for the literate few. The role is a more-or-less attested one in Ancient Greek and Roman society, as there was never any public gallery in the building where the government met and much of the population were illiterate. The Latin word is praeco, and in many old translations is translated as herald. Seen in The Stolen Eagle, How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, Pharsalus,Caesarion, Utica, The Spoils, and Kalends of February.

  • Omnipor (fictional), played by Rocky Marshall. Works for Memmio of the Caelians; romances Vorena the Elder, daughter of Vorenus, with questionable intentions. After his treachery is revealed, he is seemingly killed by an axe thrown by Pullo in A Necessary Fiction.

  1. ^ The murder of Glabius is left ambiguous in the UK edit, and is denied later by Atia in all versions, though presumably she is lying.
  2. ^ University of Waterloo ~ "All in the Family: Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty"
  3. ^ Stefan Brown's first appearance as an aged Lucius is Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus (No God Can Stop A Hungry Man).


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