Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare)

Rome episode
title= Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare)


caption= The new Octavian.
season=2 (2007)
episode=16
air_date=February 4, 2007 (HBO)
July 1, 2007 (BBC)|
writer=Todd Ellis Kessler
director=Adam Davidson
setting=Rome
time_frame=c. 43 BC
link= [http://www.hbo.com/rome/episode/season2/episode16.html HBO summary]
prev=These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero
next=Heroes of the Republic

Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare) is the fourth episode of the second season of the television series "Rome".

Plot

43 BC. Servilia dispatches a spy named Duro to Atia’s villa. Duro slips into Atia’s kitchen where he secretly spills poison into the dinner stew the cook was making for Atia. The cook tastes the stew and dies before Atia has touched it. Duro is captured and Atia orders her servant, Timon, to torture Duro. Duro confesses that it was Servilia who had employed him. Timon kills Duro but feels guilty. Timon is told by Atia to kidnap Servilia while she is praying at her villa. Servilia is brought before Atia, where she is brutally tortured by Timon in Atia’s basement. After hours of torturing Servilia, Timon feels pity on her and frees her. The bloodied Servilia runs out on the streets while Atia asks why Timon set her free. Timon holds a dagger up to Atia’s throat saying he is not an animal. Meanwhile, Octavian and Antony's legions clash in the Battle of Mutina. After Octavian wins the battle, he sends his aide, Agrippa, to tell his mother and sister, Atia and Octavia. Agrippa arrives at Atia’s villa and tells Octavia and Atia that Antony has fled to Transalpine Gaul and Octavian has won. Atia is happy that both her lover, Antony, and Octavian are alive. Pullo finds Vorenus, who had joined Antony's army, and tell Vorenus that his children are alive in a slave camp. Vorenus asks permission of Antony to leave his army in order to search for his children and Antony consents. Pullo and Vorenus arrive at the slave camp where they rescue Vorenus' daughters and kill the slave camp owner.

Historical and cultural background

*Atia's torturing of Duro was based on Roman law, whereby a slave's testimony would not be accepted unless the slave was tortured.
*Cicero's comments to Agrippa may be a reference to Cicero's term as consul in 63 BC. Cicero, in defending the republic against the Catiline conspiracy had several conspirators executed without trial. Summary execution of citizens was a violation of Roman law, but Cicero maintained that he was acting under "senatus consultum de re publica defendenda", tantamount to a declaration of martial law, so no trial was necessary.

External links

* [http://www.hbo.com/rome/episode/season2/episode16.html HBO summary]