Rome (TV Series) The Ram Has Touched the Wall (2005) User Reviews

What An Amazing Series!

[Dan1863Sickles · 8/10 · 21 June 2011]

Don't know if anyone needs a review for this episode, but it's a great one. Our two heroic Roman soldiers, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pollo, are both coping with civilian life in Rome in different ways. Meanwhile the gloriously wicked Atia is scheming how she can ruin Caesar's poignant love affair with the gentle, well-bred Servilia -- mother of Brutus, Caesar's greatest admirer (for now.) This episode shows corruption, evil, and at the end, horrifying punishment for those who fail to live up to Roman morality and decency. The city is alive with sex, sensuality, and corruption, and even though Julius Caesar seems firmly in control it's evident that we haven't heard the last of Pompey and the Senators.

Can I just say, this show is amazing? It has all the sex, drama, and historical accuracy of I CLAUDIUS, but it has something more. It has heart. There's something very down to earth and basic about the way the two Roman soldiers start out hating each other but become best friends. And the way Octavian grows to manhood by learning from these extraordinary men. In a way it's more like LONESOME DOVE than I CLAUDIUS. Titus Pullo is a lot like Gus McCrae and Lucius Vorenus is like Woodrow Call, while Octavian is like brave young Newt.

At the same time, the women in ROME are as wickedly sexy as the women in I CLAUDIUS, but somehow more human. It's fun to see Atia scheming, yet you notice she has a softer side Livia never had. Like when Caesar ignores her at a party and she ends up alone, and later she actually starts crying from loneliness. Or when Octavian sneaks out in the night to do justice and his clever, sophisticated mother doesn't suspect anything because she's already fast asleep! Not that Atia could ever be called a "good" woman but she's more human and more likable in her way than Livia ever was.

ROME really is an amazing achievement and I can't wait to watch the rest of the series!

Lucius Vorenus re-enlists

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 2 February 2016]

This episode sees Pompey and the senators accept all but one of Caeasar's demands; Pompey refuses to meet with Caesar and that is enough for Caesar to refuse the truce he never wanted in the first place. It comes at a time when Caesar needs to leave Rome as scandalous rumours about him and Servilla are making him a laughing stock. He tells her that he won't see her again leading to her cursing him and Atia. Vorenus is having problems as well; the valuable slaves he planned to sell have died; he approaches Erastes Fulmen to borrow money but instead is offered a job as his bodyguard; unfortunately it turns out Fulman wants a thug not a man of honour like Vorenus. These leaves Vorenus with just one option; he returns to Mark Antony and re-joins the legion. Vorenus's wife is concerned that Pullo knows the truth about her affair… a justified concern.

For much of this episode it looked as though it would mostly be about various political matters; how Caesar would react to Pompey's response to the proposal of truce and later how he would react when news of his affair with Servilla spreads through Rome. It was equally interesting to see Vorenus's problems… and good to see him returning to the military where he belongs. The episode isn't full of action but there are a couple of distinctly gruelling scenes; firstly when Fulman orders Vorenus to break a man's arm then, in an even more gruelling scene, where Pullo and Octavian torture a confession out of Niobe's lover before killing him. The entire cast continues to do a fine job; in secondary roles Lorcan Cranitch is great as the unpleasant Erastes Fulmen and Lindsay Duncan excels as Servilla as she curses Caesar and Atia; there is real venom in her voice in this scene. Overall another impressive episode.