Servilia of the Junii

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Servilia of the Junii
Rome character

Name	Servilia of the Junii
Class	Patrician
Family	Cato the Younger (half-brother) Marcus Junius Brutus (son) Cassius (son-in-law)
Allies	Caesar (ep 1-6) Marcus Junius Brutus Cassius Octavia of the Julii (ep 7-9) Quintus Valerius Pompey
Enemies	Atia of the Julii Julius Caesar (7-12)
Appearances	1-1 "The Stolen Eagle" 1-10 "Triumph" 1-11 "The Spoils" 1-12 "Kalends of February"
Portrayed by	Lindsay Duncan

Servilia of the Junii is a character from the HBO/BBC2 original television series, Rome, played by Lindsay Duncan. She is depicted as a sophisticated and regal Roman matron who follows her heart to her detriment. Betrayed by love, and hungering for revenge, she slowly becomes as cruel as those she would destroy. Servilia is loosely based on the historical personage of Servilia Caepionis, mother of Marcus Junius Brutus, and famous lover of Julius Caesar.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Personality
2 Servilia's Curses
3 Character history
4 Comparison with Servilia Caepionis
5 Family tree

[edit] Personality

HBO's Rome portrays Servilia of the Junii as a very complex individual. Her Patrician upbringing affects every thought and action she embarks upon. She is blindly loyal to the Roman Republic, and Servilia doesn't hesitate in offering up her son Marcus Junius Brutus to be used as a political tool against those who would threaten the Republic. Servilia plots with Quintus Valerius Pompey, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Marcus Junius Brutus to assassinate the current leader Gaius Julius Caesar. Servilia always conducts herself as a lady of upper Patrician carriage, but she has a dark side that emerges as she plots her revenge on spurnful lover Caesar and her nemesis Atia of the Julii. It is believed Atia had the sexual graffiti produced that publicly exposed the love affair that humiliated Servilia, Caesar, and his wife Calpurnia. This scandal caused Caesar to break off his life long romance with Servilia in a violent scene, which affected her deeply.

After Caesar is assassinated Servilia summons Atia to her home. She quietly tells Atia not to be alarmed, and that she won't hurt her. She advises Atia she wants her to run, and she will find her. The stare Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) imparts to Atia (Polly Walker) as she rises to leave is akin to a large predatory cat intent on its prey. It is bone chilling, and it shows the flip side of the gracious Servilia.

[edit] Servilia's Curses

After she is emotionally and physically abused by her lover, Gaius Julius Caesar, and is publicly humiliated by Caesar's niece Atia of the Julii, Servilia begins a path of revenge. Her first act of revenge is to evoke curses onto both Caesar and Atia by a call upon her family gods Di indigetes.

Servilia's curse upon Caesar:

"Gods of the Junii, with this offering I ask you to summon Taiki, Makerer, and Nemesis so that they may witness this curse. By the spirits of my ancestors I curse Gaius Julius Caesar. Let his penis wither. Let his bones crack. Let him see his legionnaires drown in their own blood. Gods of the Junii, I offer to you his limbs, his mouth, his breath, his speech, his hands, his heart, his stomach. Gods of the Inferno, let me see him suffer deeply, and I will rejoice and sacrifice to you."

Servilia's curse upon Atia:

"By the spirits of my ancestors I curse Atia of the Julii. Let dogs rape her. Let her children die and her houses burn. Let her live a long life of bitter misery and shame. Gods of the Inferno, I offer you her limbs, her head, her mouth, her breath, her speech, her heart, her liver, her stomach. Gods of the Inferno, let me see her suffer deeply, and I will rejoice and sacrifice to you."

Both of these curses are given as she carves them into scrolls of lead. The scrolls are then rolled up and given to her duenna (slave), who then takes the scrolls to hide them within the cracks of the homes of her intended victims.

[edit] Character history

Initially a supporter of Caesar because of her love for him, Servilia now allies herself with whoever will aid her in her revenge against the Julii, whether they know it or not, such as Octavia, Quintus Valerius Pompey, and Cassius

A quiet, refined, and proper patrician lady, and a continual social rival and enemy of Atia of the Julii, Servilia initially follows her heart and her love for Caesar, rather than the political ideals held to by her son. It is a choice that costs her dearly when Caesar - for purposes of political face, because of acts initiated by Atia, and at the insistence of his wife Calpurnia - rejects her. Her anger, pain, and desire for vengeance transform her into as cunning and malevolent a manipulator as Atia. Her cold anger has driven her to acts such as the sapphic seduction of Octavia, and subsequently manipulating her to disgrace the Julii. She has become the nexus around which the anti-Caesar movement turns. It is in her house that the anti-Caesar movement forms the plan for the assassination.

[edit] Comparison with Servilia Caepionis

Servilia was the half-sister of Cato, in real life and in the series Caesar's most dedicated political opponent. In 63 BC, during the crisis caused by Catiline's conspiracy to overthrow the state, Caesar was passed a note in the Senate. Cato, believing Caesar was sympathetic to Catiline, accused him of corresponding with the conspirators and seized the letter, only to discover, to his great embarrassment, that it was a love letter from Servilia.

She had two husbands, Marcus Junius Brutus, famous Brutus's father, and Decimus Junius Silanus, to whom she bore three daughters, all called Junia. Her affair with Caesar continued into the Civil War, and he gave her discounts when auctioning off the estates of defeated enemies. There is no reference in the historical sources to their affair ending, although she was rumoured to have given him her youngest daughter, Junia Tertia, when his interest in her began to wane. Junia Tertia was the wife of Caesar's assassin Cassius, and was also rumoured to be Caesar's natural daughter. Plutarch reports the suspicion that Caesar was also Brutus's biological father, although as he was only fifteen when Brutus was born this is unlikely.

There is no evidence that Servilia was involved in the plot to assassinate Caesar, but after the assassination the conspirators met at her house and she was involved in their discussions on how to proceed. She appears to have had some influence in the Senate: Marc Antony was trying to sideline Cassius by offering him a position as corn commissioner in Sicily, but Servilia promised to get this removed from the Senate's decree. She also objected strongly when Cicero criticised Brutus and Cassius's strategy.