Niobe of the Voreni

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Rome character
Niobe
Name	Niobe
Portrayed by	Indira Varma
Class	Plebeian
Family	Lucius Vorenus (husband) Vorena the Elder (daughter) Vorena the Younger (daughter) Lucius (son) Evander Pulchio (brother-in-law) Lyde (sister)
Allies	Lucius Vorenus Vorena the Elder Vorena the Younger Lucius Evander Pulchio Lyde
Enemies	None
Appearances	The Stolen Eagle How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic An Owl in a Thornbush Stealing from Saturn The Ram has Touched the Wall Egeria Pharsalus Caesarion Utica Triumph The Spoils Kalends of February Passover

Niobe, wife of Lucius Vorenus, is a fictional character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by Indira Varma.

[edit] Personality

A beautiful woman devoted to her family, Niobe is a proud Plebeian from a large clan. After marrying Lucius Vorenus and giving birth to their two daughters, she was forced to function as a single parent when Lucius went off to war. When he returned, their reunion was an awkward and tempestuous one: after 8 years of bloody wars, Vorenus did not know how to be a husband and father; after 8 years alone, Niobe did not know how to treat him. Niobe loved her husband but had difficulty understanding him. They eventually managed to rediscover their love for each other until tragedy struck.

[edit] Character history

Niobe married Vorenus when she was "thirteen summers" old. After the Gallic War took her husband away for 8 years, she was forced to deal with further hardship when she was mistakenly told that Vorenus had been killed, and his salary was stopped. She was astonished to learn that Vorenus was still alive. Vorenus was likewise astonished and enraged to find Niobe holding an infant, until Niobe told him that the child was, in fact, his grandson -- the son of his now-teenaged daughter, Vorena the Elder, who was quickly married off to the presumed father of the child after Lucius' return.

The reintegration of Lucius Vorenus into family life was made more difficult by Niobe's secret: the "grandson" Lucius was actually her son by her brother-in-law, Evander Pulchio, who was her lover in Lucius' absence. The tensions between Niobe, her sister Lyde, and her brother-in-law did not make the restructuring of the family's life any easier, and Lucius' personality did not help the situation: he came across as cold and mean, and Niobe described him as a "brute."

Family tensions did not lessen when Evander mysteriously disappeared -- murdered by Titus Pullo and Gaius Octavian when they learned the truth about Niobe and Vorenus' "grandson". Pullo covered up the murder by claiming that Evander was rumored to have been murdered by members of the criminal underworld owing to gambling debts. Niobe devoted her time to helping Lyde adapt, something that Vorenus felt interfered with his attempts to reforge a relationship with his wife.

When calamity threatened the family fortunes, Vorenus was forced to re-enlist with the Legion, with the added prestige of being one of the evocati. This was a step Vorenus did not wish to take, but he did so for the good of his family. It was a sacrifice that was not lost on Niobe.

Niobe again lost Vorenus to the Legion as Caesar's forces clashed with those of the Optimates in Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, and finally Hispania. Yet again, she was left at home to wonder whether her husband was alive or dead. His eventual return led to rising fortunes for the Vorenus clan: Lucius was granted a new career as a city magistrate, while Niobe and Lyde embarked on a lucrative joint venture running Evander Pulchio's butchering business. The Voreni family began to enjoy a comfortable measure of prosperity.

Niobe worked to hold her family together in the face of changing family fortunes and new social circumstances, although, as an open, friendly, yet socially-unsophisticated lady, she did not quite "mesh" with the likes of Atia of the Julii or other patrician women.

In the Season One finale, Vorenus was appointed a Roman senator by Julius Caesar on the basis of his public popularity. However, just before Caesar's assassination, the plans for which he was unaware, Vorenus also learned that his "grandson" was really Niobe's illegitimate child and went home to confront her. (He was therefore not present when the assassins attacked Caesar, something that the assassins had arranged, since they did not want a popular hero to be involved.) When Niobe learned that Vorenus had been told the truth, she committed suicide by falling off a second-floor balcony onto the ground below. Shortly thereafter, Niobe was cremated in a small service attended by Vorenus, Pullo, and Pullo's wife Eirene.