Minor Characters of Rome - Commoners

Commoners

The following are mostly the family, slaves and associates of Lucius Vorenus, Niobe and Titus Pullo:

• Evander Pulchio (Greek name, fictional), played by Enzo Cilenti. The now deceased husband of Lyde, brother-in-law of Niobe, and secretly the father of her son Lucius. Seen in An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn and The Ram has Touched the Wall.

• Gaia (fictional), played by Zuleikha Robinson. The former supervisor at a brothel who kept the customers in line, Gaia negotiates a similar job with better pay with Vorenus, now the leader of the Aventine. She becomes somewhat involved with Mascius, but also shows an opportunistic interest in both Vorenus and Pullo. Gaia makes an enemy of Pullo's wife Eirene, who compels Pullo to beat an insubordinate Gaia in Death Mask; he roughs her up, but with her encouragement ends up having rough sex with her as well. Later, Gaia acquires an abortion-inducing herb called silphium, which she administers surreptitiously to Eirene in her tea in A Necessary Fiction. Eirene miscarries, and then dies (apparently of blood loss). In Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus, Gaia and Pullo have been in a relationship for a few years; she is mortally wounded saving him from an attack by Memmio, and on her deathbed admits that she killed Eirene. Pullo strangles her to death, and throws her body unceremoniously into the river. Gaia appeared in Son of Hades, These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Heroes of the Republic, Philippi, Death Mask and A Necessary Fiction.

• Lucius (fictional), played by Marco Pollack, Alessio Cuna and Stefan Brown. Son of Niobe and Evander Pulchio — a fact that was hidden from Lucius Vorenus until the Kalends of February. Until then, Vorenus was led to believe the boy was his grandson by his eldest daughter Vorena the Elder. Vorenus accepts the child in later episodes, happily embracing him after he believed his children were dead. Appears in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, and Kalends of February.

• Lyde (Greek name, fictional), played by Esther Hall. Sister of Niobe, widow of Evander Pulchio, and business partner with the Vorenus family in a very profitable joint-venture butcher shop. Seen in An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Pharsalus and Utica.

• Mascius (fictional), played by Michael Nardone. An old comrade of Pullo and Vorenus, he comes to the Aventine in Son of Hades seeking work under Vorenus as his third in command behind Pullo. He first appears in The Spoils, and later returns in Son of Hades, These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare) and Heroes of the Republic.

• Rubio (fictional), played by Alessio Di Cesare/David Quinzi. A slave brought back from Gaul by Vorenus, he falls ill and is taken to Niobe for care. He appears in episodes The Stolen Eagle, How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, The Ram has Touched the Wall and Egeria as well as Utica, Triumph, The Spoils and Kalends of February.

• Vorena the Elder (fictional), played by Coral Amiga. She is the first daughter of Lucius Vorenus and Niobe. Vorena is the feminine form for names in the Voreni family. She is somewhat impulsive and, like her father Lucius Vorenus, has a bitter, unforgiving nature. Seen in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, Triumph, and Kalends of February.

• Vorena the Younger (fictional), played by Anna Fausta Primiano/Valery Usai. She is the second daughter of Lucius Vorenus and Niobe. During the entire run of the series, she only utters sounds thrice: initially, at the beginning of Egeria when she makes a yelping noise whilst playing hide and seek with the family's young Gaulish slave; then twice in Heroes of the Republic, first she catches Vorena the Elder's attention while riding in the back of a wagon by saying, "Sister!" and later excitedly exclaims "Lyde!" upon seeing her aunt for the first time after her rescue from slavery. At the end of the series, she is credited by Pullo for all but running the Collegium tavern. Pullo says she has the "glare of Medusa". Seen in How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic, An Owl in a Thornbush, Stealing from Saturn, The Ram has Touched the Wall, Egeria, Utica, and Triumph.