The day of Caesar's triumph draws near, and at the Senate gathering tensions are high. Cicero makes an offer to give Caesar absolute power for 10 years, and he's greeted with applause. Brutus takes the word and swears loyalty to the dictator. After the offer is accepted unanimously, Caesar tells the senators that he offers them to join him in creating a new, better Rome and that the war is officially over.
Atia comes to Servilia's house after her public humiliation and offers her to take a seat next to her during the triumph, but the other woman politely refuses. In Pestum, Octavia is seen in Cybele's temple cutting her arms while her brother comes after her and asks her to come back home. Despite her reluctance, Octavian doesn't relent and takes her back.
Vorenus addresses the plebians and tells them that he will protect their interests. Caesar brings Vercingetorix out of the dungeon and orders his men to tidy him up for the triumph. The glorious day comes, and Pullo wants to walk with XIII Legion, but the other legionnaires refuse him to march alongside them. Despondent over the situation, he goes to drink his sorrows away.
Brutus tries to convince his mother to come with him, but she refuses and sends him on his own. Octavia is treated at home to hide her wounds and refuses to talk much with her mother. Quintus Pompey shows up at Servilia's house and starts insulting him, but the mother lets him in and calms him down.
Octavian gives Caesar a blessing with sacrificial blood, and Vercingetorix is brought out, bound to a pole on a cart. The procession moves through the streets of Rome and reaches the Capitolium. Caesar takes his seat and orders the Gaul to be hanged, with the crows crying out in awe afterwards.
Several days after the celebration, Brutus confronts his mother about Quintus' presence in the house, but she tells him off. Meanwhile, Posca reveals to Vorenus that the elections are rigged in his favor, and the centurion is appalled at the deception, but Posca gives him an argument to reconsider. Pullo asks his friend to free Eirene so that he could marry her, and they follow through with it. Once they come back home, Pullo tells his beloved that she is now a freed woman and that he can marry her, but his happiness is short-lived as another slave tells him Eirene will become his wife. The legionnaire flies into a rage and beats him to death, and Vorenus confronts him over this deed, telling him that a murder at his home is unacceptable and it will leave a black mark on his reputation. The friends break up with each other, and Pullo leaves. At night, Erastes Fulmen meets Pullo at a tavern and offers him a job.
Cicero tells Brutus that there are pamphlets written in his name that call for rebellion against Caesar and is shocked to hear that. Coming back home, he learns that his mother is behind it along with Quintus and Cassius Longinus and panics about possible consequences for himself. Servilia tells him that he has to take action, much like his ancestors, but he still refuses. Later Caesar asks Brutus who is behind this, but he tactfully dodges the question.
During the night, Gauls sneak into Rome and take Vercingetorix's body away to burn it at a pyre, paying respects to their king.
- A God Am I: Antony tells Caesar that he's playing a god, but in response he hears that 'this is not a game'.
- Last Disrespects: Caesar leaves Vercingetorix's body to rot away at the Forum, before his fellow Gauls take it away and burn it.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Pullo buys Eirene's freedom with the intent to marry her. Less than a minute after he's delivered the happy news, Eirene's slave husband comes to thank Pullo and introduce himself, and winds up murdered for the trouble. Vorenus immediately asks Pullo if he thought that killing Eirene's husband would endear him to her, or if he gave any thought to his actions at all.
- Self-Harm: At the temple of Cybele Octavia starts cutting herself in order to find absolution from her guilt.
