Servilia's plan to assassinate Atia backfires, with horrific circumstances when Atia's servant Althea accidentally tastes a bowl of poisoned stew before Atia samples it. Atia has Timon and his men abduct Servilia and subject her to hours of physical and degrading torture. But the brutal punishment Atia desires against her mortal enemy is one too many atrocities for Timon, who finally snaps, frees the physically and emotionally broken Servilia, and ends his contentious relationship with Atia at the advice of his brother Levi. In Gaul, with help from the grown-up Octavian, Titus Pullo seeks out Lucius Vorenus on the bloody battlefields where Octavian's armies have nearly wiped out the rebel Marc Antony's legions. Once he finds Vorenus, Pullo sets off with his friend to find and rescue Vorenus' family, sold into slavery. Charged with hand-delivering a message to Octavia, a love-struck Agrippa jumps at the chance to see her again. Meanwhile, Cicero balks at the news that Octavian is returning with his legions to Rome, and leaving the bloodied, but unbeaten, Antony's forces ready to fight another day. In a remote province in Asia Minor, Brutus continues building his own army to retake Rome and destroy both Octavian and Anthony's forces. Working together again as friends and "brothers", Titus and Lucius accomplish their urgent mission with a little intimidation and violence against the slave mine procurator.
—Christopher Chase (cchase@onebox.com)