Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Caesar’s assassination leaves Mark Antony and Octavian competing over his legacy. Octavian claims his inheritance as Caesar’s adopted son; the murderers discover that removing Caesar has not restored their control. Vorenus, devastated by Niobe’s death and infidelity, curses the children who concealed her secret. Erastes Fulmen sells them into slavery, then claims they are dead. Vorenus kills him and, believing his family lost, rules the Aventine gangs through terror. When Pullo learns the children survived, he finds Vorenus with Antony’s army. Together they recover the children, but rescue does not erase their resentment.
Octavian, Antony and Lepidus form an alliance and purge their enemies; Pullo kills Cicero, and Brutus dies after the defeat at Philippi. Servilia ends her campaign against Atia by killing herself outside her rival’s house, calling down a curse. Antony marries Octavia to seal the political settlement, but neither family loyalty nor marriage keeps the alliance together. Vorenus discovers his eldest daughter has betrayed him to a rival gang and follows Antony to Egypt. Octavian marries Livia and consolidates his position in Rome.
Years later, Antony and Cleopatra’s grain blockade brings hunger to Rome and helps turn their rivalry with Octavian into war. Defeated at Actium, Antony returns to Alexandria. Cleopatra’s false report of her death prompts his suicide; she subsequently kills herself after meeting Octavian. Vorenus escapes with Caesarion, whose claim as Caesar’s heir makes him a target. Sent to find them, Pullo instead helps protect the boy. Gravely wounded, Vorenus returns to Rome and reconciles with his children. Pullo tells Octavian Caesarion is dead, then walks away with the surviving boy, beginning to explain who his father really is.