Rome · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 28 August 2005
S1E1 The Stolen Eagle
THE MOMENT Vorenus and Pullo's first scene together in Gaul - two men whose friendship will bookend one of history's largest pivots.
The pilot establishes Rome's democratic premise immediately: the fall of the Republic will be filtered through two soldiers who have no ambition beyond survival and loyalty. The production design announces the series' scale without apology.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
Rome Season 1 Episode 1 'The Stolen Eagle' aired August 28, 2005 on HBO and BBC Two as the premiere of a 12-episode season produced at a reported cost of $100 million. Rotten Tomatoes holds Season 1 at 83 percent. Variety called Rome 'a lavish series that offers many lusty pleasures'; the Metacritic user score stands at 8.8. The premiere establishes the series' structural innovation immediately: the fall of the Republic will be filtered through two common soldiers - Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo - who have no political ambition and whose survival depends on reading the forces around them rather than shaping them. Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson's dynamic is established in their first Gallic scene with a bluntness the period drama genre rarely attempted. Ciarán Hinds's Caesar appears briefly and commands every frame he occupies. The $100-million production design announces the series' scale without apology; the narrative ambition is to make that spectacle feel inhabited rather than decorative.