The Ram Has Touched the Wall

Pompey (Kenneth Cranham) and the senators send word to Caesar (Ciarán Hinds), disappointing him by accepting his offer of truce. But Caesar decides that Pompey's vain refusal to meet with him face-to-face is excuse enough to reject the truce. Mark Antony (James Purefoy) is pleased, and ready to go after Pompey, but he soon realizes that Caesar is biding his time. Antony suggests to his lover, Atia (Polly Walker), that Caesar won't go after Pompey because he refuses to leave Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) again. This spurs the jealous Atia to find an anonymous way to humiliate Caesar into breaking off his affair. Vorenus (Kevin McKidd), meanwhile, learns that nearly all of his slaves have fallen ill and died on the way from Gaul. With his nascent merchant business already in ruins, Vorenus is forced to work as a bodyguard, which he quickly learns is not for him. Desperate, he turns to Antony, hoping to rejoin the 13th Legion as a prefect and a member of the Evocati. Meanwhile, Atia has hired Pullo (Ray Stevenson) to teach Octavian (Max Pirkis) the "masculine arts," but Octavian admits that he was not cut out for fighting. "It's not the killing," he explains. "It's the waving about of swords I find tedious." Impressed with Octavian's intellect, Pullo asks him for advice. He suspects that Niobe (Indira Varma) has been unfaithful to his comrade Vorenus, but he has no proof. Octavian recommends that Pullo hold his tongue until he's certain, and the two kidnap Evander (Enzo Cilenti) in hopes of forcing him to confess.