Brothers In Arms

Rome actor Ray Stevenson tells Peter Mattessi what it meant to be a legionary of the Empire.

THERES an extraordinary moment in the second season of Rome where Titus Pullo the burly legionary with a heart of gold, bites out a mans tongue and spits the bloody, fleshy lump into the dirt before hundreds of stunned onlookers. Its savage, visceral and — even within the context of a show that is frequently, brutally violent — confronting.

But for Pullo, its just another day at the office. Its a long way from the London pub where Ray Stevenson, who plays Pullo in the HBO/BBC production, decided to leave his job as an interior designer and begin his acting career on the urgings of a drunk Australian actor.

"I hadnt told anybody I wanted to be an actor and we got a little bit tipsy and, bless him, he helped me with my audition piece to get into an evening school."

Could he identify the drunken Aussie who set him on a path that would eventually end up with him wearing a battered old toga and tearing out mens tongues?

"You know what, its bugged me ever since, because it was so long ago. Ive wracked my brains to try to remember his name. All these years." Hes quiet for a moment: "I think his name was Gary …"

Gary? In Australia? Could be anyone. The HBO publicist pipes up with the suggestion that it may have been Gary Sweet. And though he fits the profile — Australian, called Gary, drunk — Ray thinks its unlikely.

But back to the tongue. Stevenson explains that despite the horror, it was an act of mercy: "That was actually to keep the guy alive because Pullo didnt want him dead. And the guy was talking and talking and talking, and Pullo hadnt turned up to talk."

Still, biting a guys tongue out? I mean, we all know that ancient Rome wasnt for the faint-hearted but still. A tongue? Bit much, dont you think?

Well, no. "We were holding back on the research we were getting in, because what really went on in that time, as any Roman historian will tell you, it just beggars belief. Every day people were put to death in the Forum — flayed alive, burned alive. And yet it was the most advanced and advancing society on the planet."

Pullo, despite the tongue-biting incident and other moments of ultra-violence — "he doesnt live by a moral code that we can recognise" — is actually a nice guy. Hes probably the nicest guy in Rome — a moral centre that provides a valuable counterpoint to the emotional manipulation and political scheming that goes on around him. And hes a man who, despite his taste and indisputable aptitude for violence, is capable of extraordinary acts of kindness and tenderness. Sure, hell perform hideous acts of savagery when ordered — "somebodys got to do the dirty work", is how Stevenson sees it — but for the most part Pullos happy to spend his post-military career on a revolving carousel of drinking, fighting and chasing women.

"The world that he sees, everyone around him, they operate their lives in shades of grey. Theyll manipulate, theyll connive, theyll scheme, theyll twist truths. But Pullo sees the world in black and white. The truth is the truth, a lie is a lie, honour is honour. He doesnt have any personal ambition because he sees how it ruins people around him."

If Pullo is the moral centre of Rome, then his relationship with army buddy Lucius Vorenus is the emotional thread that runs through it and ensures that the increasingly outrageous and bloody manoeuvrings of the ruling classes are grounded in the lives of ordinary Romans. Without their friendship, Rome would be little more than a political study. Entertaining but without the emotional power that Pullo and Vorenus bring. Their relationship is enormously important and a beautifully drawn picture of male friendship. But why such loyalty between them?

"Pullos loyalty is military loyalty. You look at squaddies coming back, even nowadays, people serving in conflicts in the Middle East. No matter how different these people are, what different socio-economic backgrounds they have, theyll always have a bond and that bond will stay with them. Theres something else going on when men are put in that position."

But what Vorenus and Pullo do for each other goes beyond bonds forged in war. Time after time, each risks everything to save their friend. Even wives, you imagine, might come second if the choice had to be made. Why?

"You talk to any guy whos got a best mate and, even if the girlfriend or the wife doesnt like the best mate, there is something about that male bond that gets you through so much. Who can actually understand it?

"Its kind of like an unsaid rule … theres something that transcends other friendships and other bonds that is just, I suppose, uniquely male. Its whats not said, its just there."

IN Rome, it is "just there"; a friendship that keeps us in touch not just with Roman citizens as the Republic continues its brutal colonisation of the world but with humanity.

And the colonisation was brutal.

The Romans, as weve noted, didnt shy away from bloodshed. But apart from hideous torture techniques, does ancient Rome have anything to teach us?

"In Roman times they had multi-denominational churches, a multicultural, multi-language society," Stevenson says.

"They were absorbing great things from across the empire, demonstrating more than just the negative aspects of a conquering nation.

"It doesnt matter how multicultural we think we are, have we really advanced?

"I mean, the Pantheon in Rome is basically a multi-denominational church. Any faith, from anywhere across the whole empire, could actually go in that church and worship."

He thinks for a moment about the contemporary religious climate.

"And what happened?"

Rome screens Wednesdays at 8.30pm on Showcase.

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