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 losing 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.

Cicero is finally undone by his duplicity in the form of Titus Pullo, acting upon Octavian's request to assassinate all supporters of Brutus in Rome. Pullo and Vorenus enjoy a happy if counterfeit outing with their families in the countryside to hide their assassin mission. Vorena the Elder's dangerous dalliance with one of Mimeo's men continues, and the torrid affair between Octavia and Agrippa escalates. Atia's casual cruelty to ask for the assassination of people she doesn't like results in complete disaster for Octavia's friend Jocasta. Elsewhere, the headstrong Levi engages Timon in a plan to assassinate King Herod by recruiting in the synagogue where they worship. Disastrously out manned, Brutus and Cassius engage the combined legions of Mark Antony and Octavian, and confront their fates in the ferocious battle at Philippi.

Octavian takes a new bride, Livia, and then introduces her to his family in a startling way... by having her witness the punishment he metes out to Atia and Octavia, for secretly defying the social constraints established through the facade of Octavia's "marriage" to Mark Antony. The vengeful Gaia carries out her plan to poison Eirene, which produces most dire consequences for Pullo, and no one else is the wiser. Meanwhile, Octavian, Antony, Maecenas, and their associates barely maintain their relationships of congenial contempt and hypocrisy, as everyone tries to figure out who has duped whom with the disappearance of the gold that was Herod's 'gift.' Now forced by Octavian to leave Rome to serve as an 'ambassador' to Egypt, Antony defies the conditions of Atia's house arrest to bid her a bittersweet farewell. The same can be said of Agrippa, who learns some startling news as he severs his relationship with Octavia. Timon also decides to move with his family to Judia to start a new life over for themselves. With the theft of the gold, Lucius and Pullo suspect and accuse a badly-wounded Mascius of having engineered a double-cross, but the real traitor of Vorenus' gang comes to shocking light which is the eldest Vorena. Now having pinpointed Memmio as the real culprit, Pullo takes the group to meet for a parlay with the devious captain and his cohorts, resulting in swift and bloody retribution for the traitors. A despondent Vorenus, his family fractured once again, begs Antony to allow him to come to Egypt, and finds his offer grudgingly accepted. Antony returns to Egypt and is reunited with the seductive Cleopatra.

Seven years have passed since Antony's departure from Rome, and the former commander, dissipated and debauched - held in thrall by the charms and sexual prowess of his new bride, Cleopatra, withholds precious shipments of grain from Rome, where people die in the streets from hunger. Unable to incite a war with Antony and Egypt without committing political suicide, Octavian sends Atia and Octavia to Alexandria to mediate and reason with Antony; a strategy which proves predictably unsuccessful. However, former Roman senator Posca and his wife, Jocasta, flee Alexandria with Atia and Octavia to Rome where he provides Octavian with all the ammunition he needs to bring about a war with Antony and Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Pullo has taken over the Avantine gangs of Rome. But later, a fatal blow is stricken to the torrid affair that has continued between Pullo and Gaia, as karmic debt comes to call when she saves him from the sadistic Memmino, but gets fatally wounded, and she lets it slip to Pullo that she was the one who poisoned Eirene. Octavian asks Pullo to join him in the campaign against Egypt, and Pullo agrees without question, hoping to reunite and redeem his blood brother, Vorenus, who continues to stand by Antony's side despite his growing contempt for his commander. Octavian calls for war against Antony in the Senate, and is met with thunderous approval.