Los Angeles ? Back in 52 B.C., Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo were bit players in Julius Caesar’s sweeping account of the Gallic Wars.

Now these two soldiers assigned to the conquerer’s 13th Legion have leading roles in HBO’s lavish new series “Rome,” about historic events as seen through the eyes of ordinary men.

“These names actually walked the earth … It made you think, ‘My God, you are going to carry somebody’s name. Let’s flesh him out. Let’s see what he is!”‘ says Ray Stevenson (“The Theory of Flight,” “King Arthur”), who plays Pullo, a big, bold man who loves a fierce fight and a stiff drink.

Kevin McKidd (“Trainspotting”) plays disciplined and dedicated Vorenus, who returns home after years of battles to a wife who may not have been faithful and a republic that’s on the brink of civil war.

“These are the only two ordinary soldiers mentioned by Caesar in his book, so the idea was to do a sort of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take,” says Bruno Heller, the series’ co-creator, executive producer and writer. He refers, of course, to the two minor characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” who became the title characters of a widely acclaimed Tom Stoppard play.

“I essentially took the seed of that idea to try to tell a big, historical epic, but from the street level, the everyman’s point of view,” Heller explains.

“It’s a wonderful device to be able to show the huge events in history this way. Sometimes it is the man in the street who drops the stone that causes the ripple, which upsets the empire. I’m sure it’s happening today as we speak,” Stevenson says.

“Rome” debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday.

“History goes on and on,” says Carolyn Strauss, HBO’s president of entertainment. “When the first three scripts came in, we said, ‘You know what? Let’s keep going with it.”‘ Scripts for a second season have been written, but filming has not yet been greenlighted.