Titus Pullo (character of Rome)
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Titus Pullo is a fictional character from the HBO/BBC original television series Rome, played by Ray Stevenson. He is depicted as a friendly, upbeat, devil-may-care soldier with the morals of a pirate, the appetites of a hedonist, and a total lack of personal responsibility, who discovers hidden ideals and integrity within himself. The basis for this character is the historical Roman soldier of the same name, who is briefly mentioned in Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico.
[edit] Personality
Titus Pullo's mother was a slave who died when he was young, and he never knew his father, though he assumes his father was also a slave. It is safe to say that the legion is the only family Pullo has really known; his friend Lucius Vorenus, with his strict discipline and value-filled life, comes to represent something like, if not quite a father, then an older brother.
Pullo is good natured, but a beast of a man, who ends up becoming a terror to his enemies and his own worst enemy for a time. After killing Eirene's lover, being banned from the house of his friend, and having left the XIIIth, he is filled with a death wish and only his love of the legion can snap him out of it. Later on down the line, roles are reversed when Vorenus becomes listless with grief then irrational with anger, and Pullo must take on the more responsible elder brother role in order to care for and protect his closest friend.
He represents on one side the demonic forces of the plebeian and barbarian masses that are helping to tear the republic apart, but also the life spirit and general goodness that is helping to forge its future. Pullo's affable manner, even when confronting adversaries, maintains a constant source of levity. His journey from misery and turmoil through to hope and relative inner peace could be seen to metaphorically symbolise the period of upheaval and chaos in the Roman Republic prior to the rise of Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana.
[edit] Character history
In Rome Titus Pullo is an optimistic, impulsive, risk taker. He is a foil and friend to Vorenus. Born of slaves in northern Italy, Pullo seems to live life to the fullest, but at a base and hedonistic level. He is initially a brash and insolent Roman legionaire in the 13th Legion (Legio XIII Gemina) under Vorenus. When Caesar gives Vorenus orders to retrieve his stolen standard, Vorenus chooses Pullo to accompany him because "not finding the eagle is just as dishonourable as losing it, it's like trying to find a black dog in the night." Vorenus decides it is a doomed mission and does not want to waste what he considers a good soldier. The soldiers soon stumble upon Pompey's men, who had stolen a white horse which Atia of the Julii had intended to give to Caesar. These men had also kidnapped Octavian, Caesar's nephew. Octavian shows interest in both Vorenus and Pullo after they rescue him.
Upon returning to Rome with Vorenus, both Pullo and Vorenus are rewarded by Atia (on Octavian's insistence) by having dinner with Atia and Octavian. Pullo soon finds he cannot adapt well to civilian life, wandering into the underworld of Rome through inertia and his skill at killing. Pullo struggles to define himself outside his life in the legions, and through this - and his friendship with Vorenus - discovers depths, needs, and even ideals which go beyond the image of himself as nothing more than a fighting, drinking, lecherous soldier.
While at times he shows a high level of piety and faith in the gods (particularly during the numerous times he is jailed for losing his temper and lashing out violently), some of the more notable exchanges between Pullo and Vorenus center on the latter's disgust with the former's challenging and even bitter attitude toward the ruling deities. Perhaps the most notable example of this impious streak occurs when Pullo defies Triton before the ship he and Vorenus are taking to Greece sinks into the sea. His overall defiant attitude toward authority may represent an exaggerated desire to be a slave to no one, regardless of the power they wield.
Pullo is also depicted as tutoring young Octavian in fighting and copulation. It is also implied that, unbeknownst to Caesar, Pullo might be the father of Caesarion.
Pullo later assists Vorenus in rescuing Caesarion after Ocatavian's victory in Egypt, though he has been charged with finding him. They return to Rome and Pullo tells Octavian that he has killed Caesarion and that Vorenus has died. He later tells Caesarion of his true parentage.
