Rome Recap: Son of Hades
As Lucius Vorenus and Pullo return home with the head of Erastes Fulmen, the head simply lies to one side. I guess that losing one's family will do that to you. I have enough trouble doing housework as it is, with no reason for doing it, I suspect that there will be even less reason, so I cannot fault Vorenus!
Meanwhile, Mark Antony is preparing to meet with Cleopatra, who is in town to have her son - the son of Caesar - legally recognized. She says that she has no interest in anything other than a legal declaration, but let's face it, this is Cleopatra here, she is surely up to something. Antony also has to deal with Atia who thinks that Antony is likely up to something with Cleopatra. She is surely right, if Cleopatra would have him (she will not).
Things on the Aventine are disintegrating, without Erastes Fulmen there to maintain some form of order, so Antony has another battle to fight. To his good fortune, Pullo has approached for help getting Vorenus out of bed - or perhaps help removing the head from the living quarters - and so it seems that Vorenus will be given the dubious honor of cleaning up the place.
When Antony sees the decaying head still there, he immediately removes it, to the relief of Pullo. Antony even gets Vorenus out of bed, another accomplishment, and motivates him by making sure that he feels some blame in the death of Caesar. Now it is his assignment to keep peace on the Aventine.
Back at home, Antony has another battle to wage, with Octavian, who is trying to secure his wealth left to him by Caesar. Unfortunately Antony wants no such thing. It seems that Octavian has grown a bit, however, and he takes things for himself. He uses the promise of his wealth to borrow against it, and uses the town crier to promise the poor what he thinks they deserve. This doesn't make Antony happy, and Octavian eventually leaves town. This could prove interesting.
On the Aventine, Vorenus uses the claim of peace to call a meeting of the captains, but they aren't interested in peace, they just want their cut. Since they don't want to agree, he instead breaks the peace by proclaiming himself a son of Hades, which doesn't sit well with Pullo. It does, however, give him the claim over the Aventine, since he was the one who killed Erastes Fulmen, and it looks like peace will exist. For a while, anyway.
