Pharsalus (Rome)

Rome episode
title=Pharsalus


caption=Pompey and his family.
season=1 (2005)
episode=7 (HBO; see BBC editing)
air_date=October 9, 2005 (HBO)
December 7, 2005 (BBC)
writer=David Frankel
director=Tim Van Patten
setting=Greece (Pharsalus), Rome, and Ptolemaic Egypt
time_frame=Summer of 48 BC (battle of Pharsalus on August 9) through September 28, 48 BC
link= [http://www.hbo.com/rome/episode/season1/episode07.html HBO episode summary]
prev=Egeria
next=Caesarion

"Pharsalus" is the seventh episode of the first season of the television series "Rome".

Pharsalus (modern "Farsala") is also a Greek city near where the "Battle of Pharsalus" took place.

"Caesar is desperate for troops after the tragedy in the Adriatic. Pompey's supporters resist his more cautious plans, and press for glorious victory at Pharsulus. Niobe fears that Lucius is lost, and finds comfort in her estranged sister. Atia fears Caesar's war - and her influence - are lost and turns for help in an unlikely quarter. Octavia finds a hint of welcome, but unsettling, affection. Brutus and Cicero find hearty and unexpected forgiveness. Pullo and Vorenus find a grisly means of escape from their predicament, and are presented with an amazing opportunity - and a difficult choice. Pompey discovers that a man's fate can only be avoided for so long."

Plot

49 BC. After a warship of Caesar's reinforcement legions becomes shipwrecked, following a fatal storm in the Adriatic Sea, Vorenus and Pullo are marooned on a small cay. They are to the point of accepting their possible deaths until Vorenus notices how the plutonic ether keeps the corpses afloat and figures out how to tie a raft together made out of them. With this raft, they both drift out to sea.

Meanwhile, Pompey and Caesar's remaining armies battle each other in Pharsalus, Greece. Pompey has Caesar severely outnumbered but when he lines his army up on the battlefield in war formation, Caesar accepts the challenge and musters his army for battle. After a bloody confrontation, Caesar emerges victorious due to superior knowledge on the battlefield and his routing of Pompey's cavalry which in turn put the rest of Pompey's army to flight.

After some consideration with Scipio and Cato, the three decide it's not best that Pompey travel with them. While the former two make their way to Africa, Pompey makes his way with his wife and children to Amphipoli, led by a Gallic tribe. When they reach the coast, Pompey's children come across Vorenus and Pullo washed ashore. Pullo and Vorenus, although not sure at first, recognize Pompey. The lead guide tries to recruit Vorenus and Pullo in a plot to make prisoners of Pompey and his family with a promise of splitting the spoils. Vorenus however rejects the offer and ends up stabbing the man through the throat when he refuses to leave Vorenus' sight. Vorenus then takes command of the travelling party, telling them all that they are now prisoners of the 13th Legion. Pompey asks Vorenus to come aside and speak with him where he implies his true identity without directly stating it. He lays out the battle plan that he had for his final engagement with Caesar for Vorenus and eventually explains how he was ultimately beaten. Vorenus pities Pompey and, despite Pullo's objections, leaves him to continue on his way to the coast so that he may board a ship for Alexandria.

Pullo and Vorenus make their way back to Caesar's camp and explain what happened during their time away. Antony, a loyal soldier under Caesar, believes Vorenus should be crucified for not capturing Pompey, and Caesar, at first seems inclined to agree, but eventually Caesar overrules him. Antony asks Caesar why he is so forgiving and Caesar replies that Vorenus and Pullo have powerful gods on their side by helping them first to retrieve the stolen eagle standard then surviving a shipwreck that drowned an army and finally by stumbling onto Pompey, and Caesar would not kill any man with friends of that nature.

The retreating Pompey and his family run off to Alexandria, Egypt where he is greeted by a former Roman soldier, Lucius Septimius, who had served under him in Spain. Pompey is stabbed by this soldier and beheaded. The episode ends with Pompey's family watching his headless corpse fall over into the water.

Historical and cultural background

*This episode features the Battle of Pharsalus

Inaccuracies and errors

*Caesar makes the comment that Pullo, Vorenus, and only 12 other men, out of 5,000, survived the storm. If this were true, it would mean the storm killed the entire 13th legion. In reality, the 13th legion was with Caesar in Greece and had not stayed in Rome. It would later be with Caesar at the battle of Munda, and would be demobilized in 45 BCE In addition it will reappear within the episode "Triumph".
* Vorenus and Pullo could not have drifted to Amphipolis on their makeshift raft, as Amphipolis lay on the northern shores of the Aegean, near Chalkidiki, whereas the imaginary shipwreck of the 13th Legion must have occurred on the shores of the Ionian Sea, on the western side of the Greek peninsula.
* As Vorenus and Pullo are discussing their potential deaths while stranded on the beach, Pullo talks about seeing his mother in the afterlife, but according to Roman belief, soldiers ("warriors" and "heroes") went to a different afterlife than other Roman citizens. So, assuming Roman belief to be correct, Pullo would never see his mother in the afterlife.
* The name Octavian is incorrect, and should be Gaius Octavius Thurinus 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, G. Octavius Thurinus 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 pointing at his not being born a patrician.
* After being defeated at Pharsalus, Pompey did not immediately flee for Egypt; he went island hopping along Asia Minor with his wife Cornelia Metella, son Sextus Pompeius, and earlier on, by Lentulus Spinther and Lentulus Crus (neither of whom are present in the series).

External links

*imdb episode|episode=Pharsalus|id=0688353
* [http://www.hbo.com/rome/episode/season1/episode07.html Plot Summary] at [http://www.hbo.com/ HBO]