Herod transports one hundred talents of silver from Jericho to Jerusalem, where he presents Cassius with the enormous amount, only a day after the demand for tribute is made. Herod and his wife Doris have an argument about his dedication to parental duties to his son. Marc Antony arrives in Ephesus and violently extracts Arsinoë from the Isis sanctuary, and has her strangled on the front steps of the temple of Artemis. Cleopatra instructs her eunuch Apollodorus in Alexandria to poison her youngest brother Ptolemy. In less than a week Cleopatra has shed her last two siblings and rightful claimants to Egyptian rule.  

Cassius confided much to Herod during a night of heavy drinking, while Malichus is berated by Cassius for not gathering taxes efficiently. Antipater intervenes, but this only causes Malichus to become more resentful. As the episode ends, Malichus consults an apothecary to obtain a poisonous potion intended for his new target: Herod.

SYNOPSIS:

• NARRATOR: Antigonus manages to escape from prison during flooding on the Tiber

• Herod & Nicolaus arrive at Jericho, meet Doris and young Antipater II (‘Laki’); load 100 silver talents on 25 donkeys to take to Cassius as initial instalment of tribute

• Arsinoë and Neos continue to get to know each other in Temple of Isis, Ephesus

• Antony arrives, takes Arsinoë from the Isis temple by force; transfers her to the front steps of the Artemis Temple, and has her strangled – Megabyzos tries to stop it

• Dolabella and his henchmen ride north to Smyrna, to whack Trebonius

• Appolodorus meets an alchemist for a poison potion – for killing her brother Ptolemy XIV

• Dolabella’s men breach the hilltop fortress in Smyrna and kill Trebonius

• Ptolemy is poisoned by Appolodorus, on behalf of Cleopatra

• Herod & Nicolaus arrive at Hasmonean Palace in Jerusalem with 100 talents of silver; they are received by Cassius; he entertains them with a drinking party; Malichus appears suddenly

• Cassius insists on recounting the horrendous tale of the Battle of Carrhae, which he barely survived; at end he explodes and attacks Malichus; Antipater (late arrival) intervenes • Malichus has been dishonored; he intends to get revenge on Antipater – meets Hamza (Sour-faced Man) in lower city, indicates willingness to purchase poison for deed.