Niobe of The Voreni - Character History

Character History

Niobe married Vorenus when she was "thirteen summers" old. After the Gallic War took her husband away for eight years, she was forced to deal with further hardship when she was mistakenly told that Vorenus had been killed, and his salary was stopped. She was astonished to learn that Vorenus was still alive. Vorenus was likewise astonished and enraged to find Niobe holding an infant, until Niobe told him that the child was, in fact, his grandson—the son of his now-teenaged daughter, Vorena the Elder, who was quickly married off to the presumed father of the child.

The reintegration of Lucius Vorenus into family life was made more difficult by Niobe's secret: the "grandson" Lucius was actually her son by her brother-in-law, Evander Pulchio, who had been her lover in Lucius' absence. The tensions between Niobe, her sister Lyde, and her brother-in-law did not make the restructuring of the family's life any easier, and Vorenus' personality did not help the situation: he came across as cold and mean, and Niobe described him as a "brute."

Family tensions did not lessen when Evander mysteriously disappeared—murdered by Titus Pullo and Gaius Octavian when they learned the truth about Niobe and Vorenus' "grandson." Pullo covered up the murder by claiming that Evander was rumored to have been murdered by members of the criminal underworld due to gambling debts. Niobe devoted her time to helping Lyde adapt, something that Vorenus felt interfered with his attempts to reforge a relationship with his wife.

When calamity threatened the family fortunes, Vorenus was forced to re-enlist with the Legion, with the added prestige of being one of the evocati. This was a step Vorenus did not wish to take, but he did so for the good of his family. It was a sacrifice that was not lost on Niobe.

Niobe again lost Vorenus to the Legion as Caesar's forces clashed with those of the Optimates in Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, and finally Hispania. Yet again, she was left at home to wonder whether her husband was alive or dead. His eventual return led to rising fortunes for the Vorenus clan: Lucius was granted a new career as a city magistrate, while Niobe and Lyde embarked on a lucrative joint venture running Evander Pulchio's butchering business. The Voreni family began to enjoy a comfortable measure of prosperity.

Niobe worked to hold her family together in the face of changing family fortunes and new social circumstances, although, as an open, friendly, yet socially unsophisticated lady, she did not quite mesh with the likes of Atia of the Julii or other patrician women.

In the Season One finale, Vorenus was appointed a Roman senator by Julius Caesar on the basis of his public popularity so that he could serve as a bodyguard while the senate was in session. However, just before Caesar's assassination, the plans for which he was unaware, Vorenus also learned that his "grandson" was really Niobe's illegitimate child and went home to confront her. (He was therefore not present when the assassins attacked Caesar.) When Vorenus returned home, he damaged many of the couple's possessions in a rage. Niobe does not attempt to deny that the boy is her son, telling Vorenus that she had thought him dead. At this Vorenus sits menacingly brandished a kitchen knife but shows no sign of directing violence against Niobe herself. Niobe, seeing this, tells Vorenus that the child is blameless and then commits suicide by falling off a second-floor balcony onto the ground below. When Niobe's son returns, Vorenus is holding the dead Niobe in his arms, his anger driven out by grief.