Caesar and Xena

Caesar (Karl Urban) and Xena (Lucy Lawless) from Xena: The Warrior Princess. Former lovers turned enemies. Julius Caesar is Xena's most long-standing enemy. Early in her career as Warrior Princess she tried to hold Caesar for ransom, only to be betrayed and almost killed by him. Xena has fought him on the battlefield and in a more clandestine campaign, yet he was once her lover. Perhaps it is because she once wanted to love him and join forces with him that Xena, far from rejecting what Caesar represented, chose to become like him after he betrayed her. The episode DESTINY (36/212) identified Xena's early meeting with Caesar as a turning point in her life. After Caesar, she changed from the defender of Amphipolis to the "murdering harlot" first introduced in the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (HTLJ) episode, THE WARRIOR PRINCESS (H09/109). When she first meets Caesar, Xena is still mainly interested in protecting her homeland. Her men bring a captive Roman soldier to her - he is Caesar, not yet famous but with a very high opinion of himself. Xena decides to ransom him, urged on by Caesar's assurance that he will fetch as much as 100,000 dinars. Xena takes Caesar on her pirate ship, where she begins to fall in love with him. She offers to join forces with him, thus making an "unstoppable team". When she turns him over to the Romans in exchange for his ransom, they promise to meet again. Unfortunately, when they do, it is on Caesar's terms. He boards her ship and defeats her men. In chains, Xena and her pirates are taken to a beach to be crucified. As Xena is hoisted up on a cross, Caesar commands his soldier to break her legs with a sledgehammer. Xena escapes with the help of her friend M'Lila, but Caesar's men hunt her down again, and kill M'Lila. This is the critical moment in Xena's personal history. Xena fights off the Roman soldiers in a rage and declares, "A new Xena is born tonight, with a new purpose in life: Death". Xena emerges from her first tangle with Caesar a changed woman. She hates him, but chooses to be like him...or worse than him. Her campaign of terror borrows Caesar's own tactics. Years later, Callisto follows the same path, modeling herself on her hated rival, hence also following in Caesar's brutal footsteps. Xena's crucifixion in particular continues to haunt her. Yet, Xena has also been able to put some of Caesar's lessons to a better use and even use them against him. Xena has learned to use such tactics not to emulate Caesar, but to thwart him.