Servilia is a broken woman following the death of her son Brutus; she holds her long time enemy Atia responsible and sits in the road outside Atia's home calling for justice. Eventually Atia can stand it no longer and goes out to confront her; Servilia then curses her to a life of misery before taking her own life! After their success over Brutus, Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus have returned to Rome and are discussing how they should rule; they agree to each rule part of the empire but decide any profits equally
this agreement is soon tested when Herod offers Mark Antony a bribe of 20,000 pounds of gold to be made king of Judea and tries to keep the deal secret from the other two. Inevitably it isn't a secret for long and tensions rise between Octavian and Mark Antony; to show unity a marriage between Mark Antony and a member of Octavian's family
an agreement that upsets many people. Elsewhere the slave Gaia has upset Pullo's wife and she demands that he beats her. He isn't keen but agrees
things don't go as he expected and he is soon having sex with Gaia; she is playing a very dangerous game though. If that weren't enough Timon's brother is determined that they should murder Herod and Vorenus's daughter is caught with her lover by Mascius who persuades her to spy on her father in exchange for his silence.
This episode may lack the brutal action of the previous one but it is still interesting thanks to political intrigue. Mark Antony's behaviour keeps making another confrontation with Octavian seen inevitable. The series has always had a fair amount of sex but this episode has more than most with Titus and Gaia, Agrippa and Octavia, Mark Antony and Atia, Vorena with her lover and Mark Antony and Octavia all at it! In many ways this goes to show how sex is power; this is particularly true of Gaia who uses it to wrap Pullo round her finger. Zuleikha Robinson was on great form as Gaia; she makes it entirely believable that her character could get the better of Pullo or just about any man! Atia is usually a fairly unsympathetic character but it was hard not to feel sorry for her when she becomes a victim of both politics and Servilia's curse. Overall this was a fine episode that impressively depicted politics on both the grand scale and on a more personal level.
This episode may lack the brutal action of the previous one but it is still interesting thanks to political intrigue. Mark Antony's behaviour keeps making another confrontation with Octavian seen inevitable. The series has always had a fair amount of sex but this episode has more than most with Titus and Gaia, Agrippa and Octavia, Mark Antony and Atia, Vorena with her lover and Mark Antony and Octavia all at it! In many ways this goes to show how sex is power; this is particularly true of Gaia who uses it to wrap Pullo round her finger. Zuleikha Robinson was on great form as Gaia; she makes it entirely believable that her character could get the better of Pullo or just about any man! Atia is usually a fairly unsympathetic character but it was hard not to feel sorry for her when she becomes a victim of both politics and Servilia's curse. Overall this was a fine episode that impressively depicted politics on both the grand scale and on a more personal level.
