It's one of the points where Rome captures something very alien about the way people in that culture see the world and the kind of responses they were open to.

Oh, I really like that too (I think the idea that Eirene marries Pullo for security because she doesn't have this luxury of romantic love/being faithful in her heart, etc., is just such a great one - and then she comes to love things about him and even him.)

I have seen some pictures of Pullo in a leather armor-type thing from the next episode, and I am considerably mollified :P (What? I'm shallow!) But I do think he's up for endless guilt and remorse now - even if he never intended for anything bad to happen to Eirene or the baby. I just wish he'd been better able to see through Gaia just as he did previously. Sigh!