"The Stolen Eagle" is the series premiere of the British-American historical drama television series Rome. Written by series creator Bruno Heller and directed by Michael Apted, the episode first aired in the United States on Home Box Office (HBO) on August 28, 2005, and on the BBC in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 2. Rome was given a budget of $100 million, making it the largest amount both networks had ever spent on a series. Heller centered the series' narrative on the perspectives of two common soldiers, similar to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Apted shot the episode at Cinecittà, the Roman studio where the epic films Ben-Hur and Cleopatra were filmed. On the set, realism and authenticity were emphasized more than grandiosity, with depictions of a cosmopolitan city of all social classes.
As the wars in Gaul come to an end, Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds) is faced with both triumph and tribulation. On the heels of his victory comes news of his daughter's death. Awarded with the adulation of the people, he also garners the enmity of politicians in Rome, including Pompey the Great (Kenneth Cranham). In Rome, Pompey must balance honor and politics as he is urged to betray his former friend. Meanwhile, Caesar's niece Atia of the Julii (Polly Walker) tries to steer her family on the dangerous path between the growing divisions of power. In the Gallic countryside, two unlikely allies (Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson) journey to reclaim the stolen standard of the Roman legion.
HBO described its marketing strategy as "its largest, most aggressive for a new series," and media outlets estimated its cost at $10 million. On its first broadcast, an estimated 3.8 million US viewers watched the episode. On its first airing in the UK and Ireland, it secured an estimated audience of 6.6 million people. Critical reception was largely mixed, with several reviewers writing that the episode suffered from slow storytelling. "The Stolen Eagle" garnered four major awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series.
Plot During the Siege of Alesia in 52 BC, Centurion Lucius Vorenus of the 13th Legion commands his men as Gallic warriors fall on his line. In contrast to the Gauls' chaotic charge, the Romans fight using a tight and well-organized shield wall, until one drunk legionary, Titus Pullo, breaks ranks and charges into the crowd of Gauls. Vorenus rescues and angrily orders him back into formation, and Pullo strikes him. Later, the assembled soldiers watch as Pullo is flogged and condemned to death for his disorderly conduct.
The day after, the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix is brought before Julius Caesar and made to surrender, ending the eight-year-long Gallic Wars. Caesar's niece, Atia of the Julii, orders her son Octavian to deliver a horse she has purchased straight to Caesar in Gaul to ensure that he remembers them above all other well-wishers. Caesar himself receives news that his daughter Julia, married to his friend Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus with whom he shares power in Rome, has died in childbirth along with her stillborn daughter. Fearing the loss of their friendship, Caesar and his general, Mark Antony, muse that they must find Pompey a new wife.
In the Roman Senate, Cato the Younger moves that Caesar is stripped of his command and recalled to Rome to answer charges of abusing his office and illegal warmongering. Pompey, as sole Consul present, vetoes the motion and declares his faith in Caesar's leadership. At the theater that night, Metellus Scipio introduces his daughter Cornelia Metella to Pompey as a prospective wife, while Cato warns him that he must ally against Caesar before it is too late. Pompey again asserts that Caesar means no harm, although privately, he is troubled by Caesar's rising prestige and gives orders to one of his slaves who is leaving on a trip to Gaul. At night in the encampment of the 13th Legion, the Aquila is stolen by Gallic brigands. To avoid a potentially disastrous drop in morale, Antony orders Vorenus to retrieve it. As Vorenus feels the mission is doomed to failure, he has the condemned Pullo released from the stockade to assist him.
In camp, Caesar welcomes Marcus Junius Brutus, his unofficial stepson whose mother is Caesar's lover, Servilia of the Junii. Later, at a party hosted by Servilia, Brutus confides to Pompey that the loss of the eagle has induced the 13th Legion to plot mutiny against Caesar. On the road to Caesar's camp in Gaul, Octavian is abducted by highwaymen. For Caesar's request, Atia instructs her daughter Octavia to marry Pompey by first divorcing her husband Glabius, despite Octavia's protests that they are deeply in love. Atia then presents Octavia to Pompey at a party and offers her for premarital relations, which Pompey takes advantage of.
Vorenus and Pullo set off in search of the eagle, encountering and rescuing Octavian from his captors. Octavian thanks them and promises that they will be rewarded. Vorenus and Pullo discover Pompey's slave trying to escape with the eagle in a cart, realizing that Pompey arranged the theft to discredit Caesar. A politically astute Octavian notes that his uncle will be quick to exploit the situation: Civil war between Caesar and Pompey is inevitable, but Caesar needs Pompey to make the first move so as not to appear the aggressor; Pompey is likely to do that if he believes Caesar's soldiers are on the verge of desertion. The trio returns in triumph to camp, where a surprised yet grateful Caesar takes the eagle back as proof of Pompey's hostility. He sends Pompey the head of his slave and informs him of his next move, to winter the 13th Legion at Ravenna on the Italian border, while making it clear that he intends to press his right to the Consulship. Pompey breaks all ties with Caesar and takes Cornelia as his new wife. Octavia, humiliated at being used by Pompey and heartbroken over her pointless divorce, says she wants him dead.
Production
Conception and writing
"The Stolen Eagle" was written by executive producer and co-creator Bruno Heller and directed by Michael Apted, who also directed the following two episodes. Heller said the era of the Roman Empire was "pivotal in Western history. If things hadn't turned out the way they did at that particular point, the world that we live in now would be very different." He decided to tell the story of the series from the perspectives of two common soldiers, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. According to Heller, "They are the only two ordinary soldiers mentioned by Caesar in his book, so the idea was to do a sort of Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern take. I essentially took the seed of that idea to try to tell a big historical epic, but from the street level, the everyman's point of view."
The episode title is a reference to the standard of the Roman legion, a symbol that represents the legion's unity. While the storyline detailing its theft was based on fiction, Heller believed that it showed how Caesar could turn "misfortune into opportunity. He was always one step ahead of his enemies." Certain characters were changed from their traditional images; for instance, while Brutus has been portrayed as the noblest Roman, Heller and historical consultant Jonathan Stamp thought it would be interesting to have him forced into his later role through his ancestry. Alluding to the fact that Brutus' great great great grandfather "drove the last king out of Rome", Stamp said that "his family history was pushing him in one direction, his emotions in another."
Casting The producers cast relatively unknown British and Irish actors for the series. Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan, who was cast as Servilia, believed that she and other UK actors "can do old, can do classic, and you believe it." She also said that because of long distances, American actors or those of other nationalities were avoided: "Transporting actors from [Los Angeles] to Rome on a regular basis does not look good for the budget. We're quite cheap." Stamp described Servilia as "the great love of [Julius] Caesar's life, his mistress and by all counts the only woman he truly loved." Irish actor Ciarán Hinds was cast as Caesar. Hinds first thought it was "silly" to be offered the part, but then, "you think it's quite an honour to be chosen to play it. And then you think, 'Oh shit I've got to do it', and then, well, 'I suppose someone has to do it!'" Heller had believed that Hinds would make "a great Caesar" for a long time, and considered the series "extremely lucky" for being able to cast him.
Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, who had never appeared in a television series that necessitated over twelve months of filming, was cast as Lucius Vorenus, one of the lead characters. McKidd said, "What was different about this show is you get 14 months to really get into every nook and cranny of the character, in a way you don't get a chance to explore when you do a movie or a theater play. Initially, it was a terrifying prospect. But once you got over that, you realize what a great opportunity it was." Heller described his character as "very much a Roman of the Old School, a stoic man devoted to duty and religion and the legion." Ray Stevenson played Titus Pullo, a soldier who befriends Vorenus. McKidd said that "they're kind of thrown together by fate, by chance, but somewhere along the line they start to stick ... [They] keep finding themselves accidentally at the epicenter of tumultuous events and immense change, so they're kind of clinging to each other."
Caesar's niece, Atia, was portrayed by actress Polly Walker. According to Heller, while most auditioning actresses assumed that the character was the series' villainess, Walker made "[Atia] bigger than life but completely real ... She could read the phone book with that kind of brio and joy." Rather than a villain, Heller wrote her to be "a real life force. Everything she's doing is for the good of her family, her children. No matter how evil it gets, it's always for a good reason." Walker was pleased with her "very complex character. I found it exciting to play such massive emotions and deal with such interesting, to say the least, situations. I saw it as a huge challenge, and I have huge admiration for this character. A lot of people might consider her to be sort of evil or bad, but I think she's wonderful. She's just a survivor, doing what she's got to do."
Filming The series was given a budget of $100 million (£58 million), the largest both HBO and the BBC had ever devoted to a series. The season was filmed between March 2004 and July 2005, at locations in or around Rome, and on a set considered "to be the biggest and most expensive ever built for television." It was built at Cinecittà, where the epic films Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963) had been filmed. Production designer Joseph Bennett built a set that emphasized authenticity and realism rather than grandiosity. He said, People think of Rome as white and cold and beautiful, powerful but distant. But based on the research, I don't think it was like that at all. If you go to Pompeii, you're struck by how garish it is, even now. The temples and sculptures were all brightly painted. Rome was like Pompeii, but much bigger. And Rome was so noisy it was impossible to sleep. It was like hell. Think of it as a combination of New York and Calcutta, with insane wealth and insane poverty. It was pretty extreme.