Arsinoë continues her escape as a stowaway, boarding a merchant vessel at Halicarnassus. The crew of three Greek brothers befriend her, teaching her sailing skills. At the impressionable age of three, Caesarion is shown the mummified body of Alexander the Great in an Egyptian mausoleum. His mother Cleopatra sends a letter to Marc Antony offering her armies and resources, although her motive is self-preservation. In Rome, Herod discovers that Nicolaus was actually sent by Antony and not Brutus. In the first meeting of the Senate since Caesar’s assassination, Antony implicates Trebonius for his complicity in the murder, and has him arrested.    

Antipater visits Antigonus the Hasmonean prince in his prison cell in Rome, where he has been for many years. The meeting doesn’t go well, and Antigonus vows revenge on Herod should he ever again be free. Meanwhile, Herod returns to the empty Circus Maximus and relives a vision from his childhood that shakes him to his core.

SYNOPSIS:

Apollodorus and Caesarion visit the mausoleum of Alexander in Egypt; the 3-year old boy sees his first mummy, though he cannot yet appreciate this dry husk of a human body is that of the greatest conqueror of the ancient world.

Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoë sneaks aboard a cargo ship, but is caught – by three Greek sailors. They are the only crew on the ship, and are also brothers: Kleon, Apollo, & Manolis. Although she doesn’t trust them at first, they soon become friends. She reveals to them her actual identity, and they offer to take her as far as Tarsus.

Marc Antony summons Herod on the day the senate reconvenes, to get him and Nicolaus together as soon as possible. At this meeting Herod discovers that Nicolaus has been hired by Antony, and notBrutus as previously stated. Now he reallydoesn’t trust Nicolaus, who patiently explains why Antony had to remain “out of sight” as long as possible. In disguise, Antony has been maneuvering undetected. In Antony’s senatorial office overlooking the Campus Martius, Herod and Nicolaus have a heated conversation. Eventually they discover they have more in common than not, and strike-up a truce.

Antony has an agenda on the 1st meeting of the Senate since the assassination of Caesar. They return to the very chambers in the Theater of Pompey that the murder occurred. Antony’s secret agenda is to reveal that his senatorial colleague Treboniuswas part of the conspiracy. Trebonius purposely delayed Antony from arriving at the scene as Caesar was being fatally stabbed, the delay preventing Antony — a seasoned military veteran — from intervening. The arrest of Trebonius goes as planned; he will be executed at Caesar’s funeral.

Elsewhere on Capitoline Hill, Herod’s father Antipater visits an infamous Roman prison to see Antigonus, the Hasmonean former ruler of Judea. He has been in his filthy cell since capture by Pompey19 years earlier. Antigonus becomes a significant character in the early years of Herod’s reign — ultimately forcing Herod to escape Jerusalem when he & the Parthian army invade Judea.

Sneaking out of the villa (against his father’s stated wishes), Herod returns to the Circus Maximus at dusk; the massive stadium is empty. He falls asleep in the bleachers and revisits the most stressful episode of his childhood – when his family had to flee Jerusalem in the middle of the night (because of the city being taken by Antigonus, the Hasmonean tyrant); they cross the Negev into Petra, and live there for the next five years; he re-lives his meeting with the Nabatean king Aretas at age eight (8), when he prophesied that a tomb would be carved for Aretas where no tomb stood at the time; this would become the Al-Kazneh mausoleum during Herod’s lifetime, as he predicted.