EPISODE

2. Son of Hades

Even though his wife and children are avenged by the Erastes killing, Lucius Vorenus keeps mourning for over a month till Pullo gets Marc Antony who scolds him for Caesar's death and the continuing bloody Aventine gang riots that have resulted in the gangs wanting to fill the void left by Erastes sudden demise. Octavian is loosing patience with Marc Antony for payment of Caesar's inheritance. Meanwhile, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt arrives in Rome to pay her respects to Caesar and she also negotiates with Antony's military protection for her Pharaonic throne in exchange for valuable grain shipments. But she gets dismissed as a whore when she demands that her four-year-old son, Caesarion, be recognized as Caesar's legal son. Yet the uninvited pair of them is welcomed by Antony at Atia's party. Abusing a truce in the name of the goddess Concord and smashing up her statue, Vorenus imposes as 'son of Hades' on the gang captains a peace, paid off by Antony so trade and politics on and near the Aventine no longer get disrupted. After his mother Atia and sister Octavia tell him to accept Antony denying Caesar's legacy and laugh at his ambition to provide Rome the leadership it needs, Octavian borrows against his vast inheritance to buy popularity by paying for Caesar's lavish bequests to the populace; Antony violently refuses a political deal with him. Octavian then leaves home and retires to Campania with General Agrippa. Cicero and Brutus' mother, Servilia, hope this strife among the Julii clan will allow their party to return to Rome. Also, Timon's long-lost brother, Levi, arrives back in Rome wanting his help to make a new life for himself.

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Plot summary

Mark Antony is ruling Rome, but Octavian is demanding his inheritance. In the meantime Cleopatra comes to Rome and asks for her son Caesarion to be recognized as Caesar's son. Lucius Vorenus is full of misery, having lost both his wife and his children, and also blames himself for the death of Julius Caesar. Titus Pullo asks Mark Antony to help. After admonishing him over Ceaser's death, Mark Antony sets Vorenus the task of ending the gang wars that have broken out in the Aventine after the death of Erastes Fulmen.

He uses the goddess Concordia to persuade the gang bosses to meet: they have a superstitious regard for the goddess. When his reasonable offers are rejected by some of them, he commits sacrilege, breaking the image and declaring himself 'Son of Hades'. Pullo is alarmed by this. Vorenus thinks that the gods can do nothing more to him, so he has nothing to fear.

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