I'm Going to Miss Them, these unlikely brothers whom I have grown to love over the last two seasons of HBO's original series Rome. That's Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) on the left, a drinking, whoring, warrior of Caesar's 13th Legion, who despite his willingness to kill anyone, he has a sweet, almost childlike disposition. Next to him in Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKid), Pullo's former commanding officer who started their friendship by sentencing Pullo to death. Vorenus is everything Pullo is not -- rigid, humorless, obedient and an inflexible father of three children he hasn't seen in eight years of fighting Gauls for the glory of Rome.
Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus -- and as another major character (Atia of the Julii) says during an early episode in the first season, "Where do they get such wonderful names?" -- are the yin and yang of Roman soldiers in the First Century B.C. They are as different as two men can be, thrown together by circumstance, and over the course of many hardships, heartaches and slaughter, their friendship becomes a living thing, rarely spoken of but always present, between the two men.
Yes, there is also Julius Ceasar, Pompey Magnus, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Octavian (the future Caesar Augutus), Mark Antony and that Egytian tart, Cleopatra, but the heart of Rome the series is the story of these two men and the friendship that binds them. The series finale Sunday night is the epic showdown between Octavian and Mark Antony, who has gone native since falling under Cleopatra's spell. Pullo now serves Octavian and Vorenus, a dead-man-walking since causing the death of his wife, is Antony's first in command. You know drama demands that our two best friends must meet on the battlfield, or its equivalent. Will they lift swords against one another?
This friendship has tested logic and the limits of human endurance. Each man has proven himself willing to sacrifice his life for the other. But they both possess something even more powerful than love -- honor. From the time of Rome until now, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
The scene no Rome fan will ever forget is Episode 11 in Season One when Titus Pullo is sentenced to death for being an assassin for hire. Julius Caesar tells Vorenus, "I know he is as brother to you but the execution must not be stopped." Vorenus is dispatched to make sure that no Roman Legionnaires in street clothes come to Pullo's rescue in the open air courtroom where Pullo is sentenced to death. Vorenus spots a few waiting members of the 13th Legion, and orders them to leave, Then he follows Pullo to the gladiator pit where the execution will take place in front of a bloodthirsty crowd of cheering Roman rabble..
Pullo is handed a sword, which he tosses aside, and sits on the sand awaiting his fate. Three armed gladiators approach him. "Come on. now. Give them a little show. We'll make it quick," says one. "It looks bad if we do it like this." Pullo sits with his chin on his knees and his arms wrapped around them. "I just want to die, alraight." The gladiators start to mock him, his manhood, his mother anything to get a rise out of him. Pullo refuses. Then one of the gladiators says, "You were with the 13th weren't you? The 13th are nothing but cunts and cocksuckers." Pullo give him a look, "Don't talk about the 13th." The other gladiators pick up the taunt. As one pokes Pullo with his spear, Pullo grabs it from his hands, impales another with it, picks up the first gladiator and throws him onto a protruding spike in the wall, and then grabs the shield from a third gladiator and beheads him with it.
A bloody Pulla stands in the ring and starts chanting, "Thirteenth! Thirteenth! Thirteenth!" as the crowd goes wild and four more gladiators walk into the pit. Vorenus watches with clenched first and an agonized expression. Pullo kills the other four one by one, but he is exhausted and badly hurt. An iron gate opens and an incredible giant walks out armed with a spiked club. He knocks the sword out of Pullo's hand with a mere swipe. He brings Pullo to his knees and takes his sweet time bringing the the club above his head for the final death stroke.
Vorenus has seen enough. Forgetiing Ceasar, his wife and his three children, Vorenus steps into the ring with a sword, chanting "Thirteenth! Thirteenth! Thirteenth!" The giant turns around, almost amused. He brings his club down on Vorenus, who blocks it with his sword, but looks like a child doing so. The giant is quick, he stabs Vorenus in the stomach with the spike on the head of his club. Vorenus rolls on the ground, and in a single motion slices the giant's leg in two just below the knee. The giant falls to the sand on his bloody stump and kneels as Vorenus stands above and using the giant's own weapon, pushes the sword downward through the giant's neck into his heart.
The crowd goes nuts. Vorenus gathers Pullo from the sand and the two bloodied friend stagger out of the arena, as the red-caped Roman soldiers part to allow the heroes to pass. Awesome.
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