Xena & Hercules Articles Archive

Romanology 101

Julius Caesar. Pompey the Magnus. Antony and Cleopatra. Odavius. These famous names all belong to the last days of the Roman Republic. Their appearance as characters in Xena: Warrior Princess (and briefly in Hercules:The Legendary Journeys) ought to date Xena's story to a very precise period in history. the second half of the First Century BC.

In the Xenaverse, however, history is only raw material to tell a good story, regardless of real chronology and with only a nod to actual facts. In history Greece had been completely subdued by Rome before 100 BC. But in Xena's world, independent Greek kings and warlords share a turbulent landscape with Rome, and Xena must do her utmost to drive the armies of Caesar and Pompey away from her homeland.

The Roman Empire made all of Western Europe and the Mediterranean into a political and economic whole, permanently shaped the languages and the landscapes of all its territories, and left legacies of engineering, law, government and art that have endured for 2,000 years. However, in Xena: Warrior Princess, Rome is portrayed almost exclusively as a major military power with an insatiable lust for conquest.

This image, too, has its roots in history Rome's legions made her the military superpower of her time. From art and from film, we instantly recognise Xena's Roman soldiers in their immaculate leather and bronze armour, their short swords and crested helmets. They march to battle in precise squares, a complete contrast to the chaotic attacks of the (usually grubby) soldiers of your standard Xena warlord. And they are arrogant, too. When a Greek officer in Caesar's army backs up an order to a Roman officer with a reminder that he outranks the Roman, the Roman officer sneers, "No Greek outranks me." (A Good Day)

The most famous Roman of all is Julius Caesar, the symbol of Rome's military genius and, for a time, the ruler of the empire he helped to create. It's only natural, then, that Xena's Caesar should be the incarnation of Roman power and ambition. Karl Urban's magnetic portrayal of a man obsessed with his own great destiny is a simplification of a complex and controversial figure. Like Rome, he is sure that the world is his for the taking, and that only he is great enough to take it. Roman militarism thus becomes a personal contest between the Warrior Princess and the Roman leader.

Julius Caesar was one of the greatest generals in history a quality retained by his television counterpart. As Pompey says when Xena tricks him into thinking Caesar has occupied a strategically useless hill, "Caesar doesn't make mistakes. If Caesar wants that hill, I want that hill." (A Good Day) Xena's ability to defeat Caesar again and again, both in hand-to-hand combat and in battlefield strategy, confirms her status as the greatest warrior in her world.

The real Caesar was more than a strategist; he was also a true leader, so close to his soldiers and so beloved by them that he was said to know each one by name. But your typical television despot does not care about his men, so Xena's Caesar considers his armies just as a means to power. After a battle devastates his entire army, he stares at the field covered with corpses for only a moment before shrugging, "Back to the drawing board... This is just a minor setback." (A Good Day) One can't imagine this heartless young man being loved by his soldiers.

"Greed, lust for power, an ego the size of the Aegean." Thus Xena describes Caesar's ambition to make himself Emperor. (The Ides of March)

Although the title of Emperor, historically, had not yet been invented, Caesar's determination to become absolute ruler of Rome brings his feud with Xena to its climax. In history Caesar's betrayal and assassination by his friend Brutus was famous long before Shakespeare immortalised it. Together with another well known Roman tradition, the crucifixion of criminals, it becomes the centrepiece of one of Xena's finest episodes. The juxtaposition of these two renowned images gives us the stunning dramatic sequence which cuts between the dagger blows to the incredulous Caesar and the hammer blows that nail Gabrielle and Xena to their crosses.

With the legendary romance of Antony and Cleopatra, Xena's writers really have fun slicing and dicing history Never mind that the famous relationship lasted 11 years and that the two were married for six of those years. Never mind that Brutus had nothing to do with this war, since he died 10 years before it started. Antony and Cleopatra uses the characters of history to weave a story of intrigue and assassination and bloody battle, as Xena, filling in for the murdered Cleopatra (you do know that she really committed suicide, don't you?) falls in love with Antony and must then betray and kill him. Best of all the episode gets Xena and Gabrielle into those knockout Egyptian wigs.

More important to the story, Antony and Cleopatra introduces us to Octavius, who will be so critical to the Eve/Livia storyline. Although Octavius was actually over 30 when he defeated Antony and Cleopatra, he is presented here as an innocent and idealistic youth.

My uncle [Caesar] exploited the peoples of the world for his own ambition. I want to correct that to bring the Roman peace," he says. (Antony and Cleopatra)

Octavius is the only good Roman we know, and someone to whom Xena will later entrust her baby daughter to hide her from the gods. He grows up to be the Emperor Augustus, but Octavius is still a good Roman who wants the best for Rome and for the woman he loves, Livia. He is honest enough to listen to Xena when she warns him against Livia, and when he realizes Livia is the lover of Ares, he repudiates her.

"You and Ares? I'd sooner see the Empire destroyed than leave it to you!" (Livia)

It's because we have seen Caesar that we understand Xena's horror at what Livia has become. She first sees her grown daughter as a bloody conqueror riding at the head of a parade of brutalised captives. "She's a warrior for Rome!" Xena says to Augustus, as if Rome were a disease. (Livia)

Augustus tries to convince her that Livia is a hero, but all Xena sees is the ruthlessness and ambition that she first encountered in Caesar. Worse still, Livia is determined to eradicate the peaceful followers of Eli, so Xena knows that she will have to fight Livia if she cannot save her. And what better place in imperial Rome for mother and daughter to go head to head than the arena?

The raving, bloodthirsty crowds, the pious prisoners awaiting possible martyrdom, the Emperor with the power to give life or death just by the turn of a thumb — all give us a familiar setting for yet one more epic confrontation.

As an adversary for Xena, Rome has proven more heartless than the gods, and in some ways more formidable. Rome's popular image as a military superpower and an insatiable conqueror provides plenty of opportunity for huge battles, treacherous plots and larger-than-life villains, and plenty of challenges for the Warrior Princess to overcome.

Romanology Official Xena Magazine December 2000, K. Stoddar Hayes, p39-42.