oh, I love them.

hbo rome's brutus is weird, he's removed from both his historical counterpart (a lot of thematic traits associated with brutus are actually shoved onto cassius, which is interesting) and also his shakespearean counter part (which is what a lot of portrayals tend to use as their base) (brutus is the one mingling with the soldiers, cassius is the one acting more administratively)

brutus, the noble conspirator, kathryn tempest

we only get cassius for a handful of episodes, but the banter between brutus and cassius feels a lot like two people who have been friends for a very long time

like, that’s the kind of ribbing you get with someone you’ve known your whole life, and I adore it, but especially because it lends to an interesting viewing of the conspiracy.

there are two conspiratorial dialogues happening, servilia, and then cassius. cassius isn’t actually engaging with servilia’s conspiracy after his initial introduction into the show’s narrative. he’s recruiting brutus to the same goal servilia has in mind, but the intention is different, and unlike servilia, cassius approaches brutus directly, instead of going behind his back. he hears the news about caesar, and immediately goes to find brutus. is it manipulation? sure, but brutus knows what it is upfront, as it’s happening, and he was also going to end up there from the start (episode one, his comment about politics being settled in combat to the death, and lo, what is the assassination except politics being settled in combat to the death?) and more importantly, he arrives to cassius’ point.

the assassination itself is delicious, like who else is giving this performance, clean hands made unclean, clasped together in a joint undertaking, cassius saying ‘do it.’

and then conspirators-triumvirate conflict after the symbolic rebirth of brutus, it’s like. brutus treating it like a grand adventure, cassius pouring over reports: "you have no poetry in you, cassius. we ride with these men to save the republic," says brutus."yeah, well, sorry to be prosaic, before we do any saving of republics, we have octavian to defeat," replies cassius. OBSESSED. but also, brutus, help your man out, he’s drowning in paperwork.

there’s also a thing that happens, in accounts of the fall of the republic: the further away you get from plutarch, the shorter the intervals of time between the deaths of cassius and brutus become, to the point where they die in the same day. and there’s something so deeply tragic in brutus abruptly giving up his performance when he realizes cassius is dead.

Orosius 6.15-16

anyway tldr: I Love Them, their HBO Rome portrayal is different from a lot of portrayals of their relationship and is equal parts fun and fascinating and tragic to me