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Rome

Testudo Et Lepus (The Tortoise And the Hare)

Season 2, Episode 4, Aired Feb 04, 2007

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9.3

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Pullo races to find Vorenus with news of his family's fate. Servilia's plans to eliminate a rival exact a high price from her. Cicero is astonished when Octavian sends word that his victorious legions are coming home to Rome. In Rome, Timon finally grows weary of Atia's bidding.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR
Rafi Gavron

Duro
GUEST STAR
Lydia Biondi

Merula
GUEST STAR
Guy Henry

Cassius

Suzanne Bertish

Eleni
Tobias Menzies

Marcus Junius Brutus
Ray Stevenson

Titus Pullo
Polly Walker

Atia of the Julii
Nicholas Woodeson

Posca
Lindsay Duncan

Servilia of the Junii

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

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Testudo et Lepus

10

"Perfect"

By TrueTvWatcher, Jan 05, 2012

Testudo et Lepus was a perfect and vividly entertaining episode of Rome. I really enjoyed watching this episode as the characters have all come so far and been through much, but the suffering has not stopped. It was crazy how far Atia drove Timon in torturing Servilia and he snapped! It was great to see Pullo and Vorenus together again, though the circumstances had both good and bad news. It was sad to see what his children have endured, and the scene where they reunited was touching. You don't mess with children of the Lucious Vorenus! Octavian is all grown up now, and Mark Antony is on the run which is fun. I look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!!!moreless
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Madness is spreading in Rome

9.8

"Superb"

By chriseternal, Nov 29, 2007

This episode was so exciting. Is everyone going stark-raving mad? Vorenus' anger continues to grow but that is helped after Pullo finds him and informs him that his children are still alive. The two of them go searching and find the kids in a slave camp. They bust them out, killing the guard on the way. I'm interested to see how having his children back will affect what Vorenus does next. I don't think he's going to meet back up with Marc Anthony, especially considering his recent defeat at the hands of Octavian, the new "Caesar". Upon hearing the news of Octavian's return to Rome with his soldiers, Cicero makes a profound statement. He says he is tired of childhood ambitions and tells Duro, that make no mistake, Octavian's actions are guided by vanity. Most insane of all is Atia. After the extracted confession from Servilia's slave, Atia has her abducted. She uses Timon to torture her, but Timon is more tortured by his own actions. He turns on Atia and proclaims that he is not a monster. Servilia makes an escape to live another day. I also can't wait to see her next move, although it may be a while as Timon almost killed her.moreless
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Octavian defeats Marc Anthony, while Pullo and Vorenus go to recover the children...

9.1

"Superb"

By DERBEST, Apr 30, 2007

This episode had a lot of hardcore scenes...The one of the torture of the boy hired by Servilia to poison Atia, the scene where Servilia is tortured, the one where we are presented the scene after the battle between Octavian and Marc Anthony, and the last one where Vorenus recover his children, where we are shown a slave camp...Octavian proves again that he is very smart, by defeating the experienced army of Marc Anthony...Timon finally realizes what has become and decides to renounces doing what he was doing for Atia...I enjoyed a lot this episode, and i consider this episode as "Pivotal" for the next episodes...This victory of Octavian means the beginning of the end for Marc Anthony.moreless
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Atia survises miraculously and Servilias plotting becomes obvious, since we all know Atia is vengeful, she starts her intrigues right away...

9.6

"Superb"

By lichoNieSpi, Feb 12, 2007

I was really excited while watching this episode. Octavian as a grownup really nice introduced. And there was action, action, and again action. After previous episodes of second season I was really disappointed, but this one turned out to be the best one yet. I liked it, it was really great from the beginning when we don't know whether Atia is going to die, to the very end. Offcourse it was a little bit drastic -the tortures of Servilia etc. but that's the life at Rome and it was really nicely put together. The best episode of the second season.moreless
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First time poster here. Why do I need to have a summary? It appears elsewhere on the site, so why the repetition? Sorry, I don't see the point of wasting time.moreless

7.4

"Good"

By salsipuedes, Feb 06, 2007

This was a deeply disappointing episode, as the creators of Rome used the hour to emphasize in great detail the torture and death of the treacherous slave Doro at the expense of some factual background history. It seems as if they are planning to skip the second triumvirate and just reconcile Octavian with Marc Antony so they can eliminate Brutus and Cassius. We are getting less than the Cliff Notes here.
Does anyone else feel sorry for Atia? Everybody leaves her She is childishly vindictive but not as evil as Servilia and now she is truly alone. She never should have let Servilia live, much in the same way Caesar's murderers should not have let Marc Antony live. I hope we don't get much more of this highly uninteresting cat fight.
I also did not believe the quick reconciliation of Vorenus and Pullo on the road to rescuing the children. They will never again be as close as they used to be--too much has happened, plus Pullo clearly will fight for Octavian while Vorenus will remain faithful to Marc Antony. I like the new, older actor who has finally made the character of Octavian believable as the scheming and ruthless Augustus he will become--you can see it in his eyes. I do hope they don't marry Octavia to Agrippa but let her marry Marc Antony, as she did in real life, except the real Atia was not Antony's lover--how is the fictional Atia going to deal with that one? I don't have much hope that the writers will play fair and be true to history within the context of such hysterical fiction. And I want Ciaran Hinds back. He will only come back in Brutus' dreams, but I can't wait!!!moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Nitpick: While being on the run in the Alps, Marc Antony receives information about his soldiers from Lucius who says that the Fourth Legion is in very bad shape. However, several scenes before when Caesar Octavian makes his speech before his troops, we can see that one of the standards under which his troops are standing is the standard of the Fourth Legion, which means that the Fourth fought on Octavian's side.
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QUOTES (6)
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- Vorenus: you talk too much. Pullo: We all have our faults.
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- Caesar Octavian: Agrippa, I've got letters I'm going to want you to take on ahead to Rome. The first goes to my sister. Agrippa: Octavia... Caesar Octavian: I only have the one sister, Agrippa. Make sure you put it directly into her hand. My mother has a habit of stealing mail.
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- Agrippa: Your troops are gathering. Time to give them a speech. Caesar Octavian: Right. Which speech do you think? Maecenas: Ah, the one about money.
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- Agrippa: I'd sooner die than cause you pain. Octavia: I hope you live a long life then. Agrippa: If I may... I am compelled to speak. Ever since I met you my soul has burned- Octavia: (Interrupting) So is my brother eating properly? He would starve himself unless someone forces him to eat. Agrippa: Yes. Yes. Army food agrees with him. He, he's not stout, exactly, but yes, eating properly... Sorry. Sorry about just now. I very expressly did not mean to do that. I blurted it out anyhow. I should have written a letter, eh? Anyhow, sorry. Octavia: There's no need to apologize. Any friend of my brother is my brother also. I'm sure when I know you better we should be good friends. Agrippa: That's most gracious of you. Horrid imposition on my part. Of course. You barely know me. Ridiculous.
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- After they've lost the battle to Octavian Mark Antony: Oh, do cheer up. You're still alive, aren't you? Posca: I do hope so. If this is the afterlife it is extremely disappointing.
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- Atia: It isn't a legal confession, unless there's torture.
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NOTES (1)
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- This is the first show in which Octavian is played by a different actor.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Atia's comment about it not being a legal confession unless there's torture, is actually a very old Roman practice. The long standing belief is that a slave will lie for a master he loves, or lie about a master he hates, so torture of a slave was not only common place it was also mandatory under Roman law.
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