Minor characters of Rome

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

Noble characters

• Antonia (historically, Antonia Major or Antonia Minor^[1]), daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia of the Julii born after Antony left Rome and raised by her mother alone. She could possibly be the daughter of Marcus Agrippa.

• 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. The storyline implies that Caesarion is actually 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.

• Calpurnia (historically, Calpurnia Pisonis), played by Haydn Gwynne. The wife of Julius Caesar, she is seen in Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Kalends of February and Passover. In Shakespeare's and Plutarch's version, it is Calpurnia's dreams that almost stop Caesar on the Ides of March, cleverly alluded to by the flock of birds in the shape of a skull in Kalends of February.

• Casca (historically, Servilius Casca), played by Peter Gevisser. a Roman senator and one of the assassins of Julius Caesar.

Gaius Maecenas

• Gaius Maecenas (historically, Gaius Maecenas), played by Alex Wyndham. Maecenas first appears in Testudo et Lepus; he is a poet and longtime friend of Gaius Octavian and Marcus Agrippa, and one of Octavian's chief advisers and speechwriters. Maecenas is cheerfully corrupt, at one point conspiring with Posca to steal a portion of Herod's bribe to Mark Antony. He frequently indulges in orgies and narcotics, attends to a cadre of spies, keeps pleasure slaves of both sexes, and shows no hesitance when faced with moral quandaries.

• Glabius (Latin name, fictional), played by Roberto Purvis. The now-deceased ex-husband of Octavia of the Julii — divorced by Atia's force of will, still loved by Octavia, and therefore killed by Timon on Atia's orders.^[2] He is seen in The Stolen Eagle, How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, and Stealing from Saturn. Historically, Octavia Minor was six years older than her brother Gaius Octavian, and from c.54 to 40BC (the first season's timeframe was 51 to 41 BC) was the wife of Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. Therefore she would have been in his household, not that of the Julii/Octavii, until his death in 40 and her remarriage to Mark Antony. Marcellus has been replaced by the fictional Glabius.

• 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 proscribe. Her entire family is murdered and it is implied she was sexually assaulted and/or raped before she was able to escape. 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.

• Lepidus (historically, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus), played by Ronan Vibert. General under Mark Antony, one of the Second Triumvirate. He is given Africa when the Republic is divided amongst the triumvirs, and later falls out of prominence as his territories are annexed first by Mark Antony and later Octavian. The historical Lepidus initially intended to contest Octavian's claim to dominance, but was talked out of it - to his benefit, as he died of old age much, much later, having been unmolested during the transition from republic to empire.

Livia

• Livia (historically, Livia Drusilla), played by Alice Henley. Young wife of Octavian; introduced in A Necessary Fiction. Married to another man Claudius Nero (historically Tiberius Nero), Livia catches the eye of Octavian; she and her mother Alfidia are pleased when he insists that Livia divorce her current husband to marry him. Later Octavian explains that he has rough sexual tastes; in "Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus," Livia actively participates in mutually sadomasochistic sex with him. In De Patre Vostro, Octavian's mother Atia of the Julii puts social climber Livia in her place.

• Pothinus (historically, Pothinus), played by Tony Guilfoyle, seen in the episode Caesarion. A eunuch who serves as regent to Ptolemy XIII.

• 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,^[3] namely Ptolemy VIII Physcon.

Commoners

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

• Evander Pulchio (Greek name, fictional), played by Enzo Cilenti. The now deceased husband of Lyde, brother-in-law of Niobe, and secretly the father of her son Lucius. Seen in An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn and The Ram has Touched the Wall.

• Gaia (fictional), played by Zuleikha Robinson. The former supervisor at a brothel who kept the customers in line, Gaia negotiates a similar job with better pay with Vorenus, now the leader of the Aventine. She becomes somewhat involved with Mascius, but also shows an opportunistic interest in both Vorenus and Pullo. Gaia makes an enemy of Pullo's wife Eirene, who compels Pullo to beat an insubordinate Gaia in Death Mask; he roughs her up, but with her encouragement ends up having rough sex with her as well. Later, Gaia acquires an abortion-inducing herb called silphium, which she administers surreptitiously to Eirene in her tea in A Necessary Fiction. Eirene miscarries, and then dies (apparently of blood loss). In Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus, Gaia and Pullo have been in a relationship for a few years; she is mortally wounded saving him from an attack by Memmio, and on her deathbed admits that she killed Eirene. Pullo strangles her to death, and throws her body unceremoniously into the river. Gaia appeared in Son of Hades, These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Heroes of the Republic, Philippi, Death Mask and A Necessary Fiction.

• Lucius (fictional), played by Marco Pollack, Alessio Cuna and Stefan Brown.^[4] Son of Niobe and Evander Pulchio — a fact that was hidden from Lucius Vorenus until the Kalends of February. Until then, Vorenus was led to believe the boy was his grandson by his eldest daughter Vorena the Elder. Appears in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, and Kalends of February.

• Lyde (Greek name, fictional), played by Esther Hall. Sister of Niobe, widow of Evander Pulchio, and business partner with the Vorenus family in a very profitable joint-venture butcher shop. Seen in An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Pharsalus and Utica.

• Mascius (fictional), played by Michael Nardone. An old comrade of Pullo and Vorenus, he comes to the Aventine in Son of Hades seeking work under Vorenus as his third in command behind Pullo. He first appears in The Spoils, and later returns in Son of Hades, These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare) and Heroes of the Republic.

• Rubio (fictional), played by Alessio Di Cesare/David Quinzi. A slave brought back from Gaul by Vorenus, he falls ill and is taken to Niobe for care. He appears in episodes The Stolen Eagle, How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, The Ram has Touched the Wall and Egeria ^[5] as well as Utica, Triumph, The Spoils and Kalends of February.^[6]

• Vorena the Elder (fictional), played by Coral Amiga. She is the first daughter of Lucius Vorenus and Niobe. Vorena is the feminine form for names in the Voreni family. She is somewhat impulsive and, like her father Lucius Vorenus, has a bitter, unforgiving nature. Seen in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, Triumph, and Kalends of February.

• Vorena the Younger (fictional), played by Anna Fausta Primiano/Valery Usai. She is the second daughter of Lucius Vorenus and Niobe. During the entire run of the series, she only utters sounds thrice: initially, at the beginning of Egeria when she makes a yelping noise whilst playing hide and seek with the family's young Gaulish slave; then twice in Heroes of the Republic, first she catches Vorena the Elder's attention while riding in the back of a wagon by saying, "Sister!" and later excitedly exclaims "Lyde!" upon seeing her aunt for the first time after her rescue from slavery. At the end of the series, she is credited by Pullo for all but running the Collegium tavern. Pullo says she has the "glare of Medusa". Seen in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, and Triumph.

Other

• Charmian (historically, Charmian (servant to Cleopatra)), played by Kathryn Hunter, is Cleopatra's dedicated slave and advisor.

• Eleni (fictional), played by Suzanne Bertish, is Servilia's body-slave.

• 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 have a falling out in which Levi is mortally wounded with his own knife by Timon and the attempt is 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-servant.

• Newsreader (Senate Crier) (fictional), played by Ian McNeice. Appears in almost every episode. The closest Rome comes to a narrator, and the mouthpiece for pieces of plot exposition not fully explained. The Newsreader announces daily the pronouncements of the Senate, public service announcements, business advertisements, 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 publicly displayed later 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 was illiterate. The Latin word for newsreader is praeco, and in many old translations is translated as herald.

• 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.

• Vercingetorix (historically, Vercingetorix), played by Giovanni Calcagno. "King of the Gauls," he appears in The Stolen Eagle and Triumph.

References

1. ^ The historical Mark Antony and Octavia Minor had two daughters named Antonia, and it is not known whether the series intended the character to be one, the other or a composite of both.
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ University of Waterloo ~ "All in the Family: Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty"
4. ^ Stefan Brown's first appearance as an aged Lucius is Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus (No God Can Stop a Hungry Man).
5. ^ Alessio Di Cesare - TV.com
6. ^ David Quinzi - TV.com