Even though it's nighttime, Julii Cooper's party is still going on. Posca comes and whispers to Caesar, who excuses himself, bidding Mark Antony with a look to join him. As Caesar passes Servilia, he slows ever so slightly before moving on. Servilia smiles, equally slightly. Julii Cooper -- though not particularly big on subtle reactions herself -- is nonetheless capable of noticing them. She realizes that something's up. And it's under Caesar's toga.

Quintus is out in the stableyard, lying on the ground, conscious and grunting through his gag. Pullo paces next to him, and J. No huddles nearby, stripped of her finery. Pullo snaps to again as Mark Antony and Caesar come outside, the former saying, "Pullo, you scoundrel. What have you done now?" Pullo begins to explain himself to Caesar, but first things first to Mark Antony: "Who's this?" Pullo introduces Quintus, and Mark Antony cackles, "Quintus, my old cock! How good to see you so!" Caesar breaks his silence by coldly snapping at Pullo, "Explain." Pullo begins, but Caesar stops him and pulls him to one side when he learns that Pompey's men stole the gold from the treasury. Out of TV earshot of Quintus, he asks, "Pompey does not have it?" "He doesn't, sir," Pullo says excitedly, and then starts babbling to get himself out of trouble. Stone-faced, Caesar cuts Pullo off and asks where the gold is now. Pullo says that he buried it in the woods a couple of miles from the Flaminian Gate. Caesar finally cracks a smile, turns his eyes skyward, and breathes, "Thank you." No, thank you, Caesar. I've been watching this show for four weeks while everything goes just right for Caesar in his little campaign, riding the inexorable tide of history like he knows exactly where it's taking him, and he acts like it's all part of his master plan when in fact he's just the second-luckiest damn bastard in the Republic. Showing some sign that he recognizes that, even for a moment, does more to humanize him than anything I've seen from him so far.

Inside the party, the main event is about to begin. As servants carry out a cooked but intact bird, feathers and all, dancers take up position to begin a floor show that will no doubt turn salacious in short order. Julii Cooper suspiciously watches Servilia, who is giving nothing away. Octavian, goat testicles notwithstanding, shows no interest in the display and gets up to leave.

Out among the stables, Pullo removes the gag from Quintus's mouth so that Caesar can talk to him. As Octavian wanders out and takes up position where he can do what he does best (eavesdrop), Caesar tells a defiant Quintus that he's sending him back to his father with an offer of truce. "A truce?" Mark Antony repeats incredulously. Caesar has to tell his general to shut it twice before he complies. Caesar reiterates his offer to Quintus: "An equable truce, on good terms. If violence continues, it will not be my doing, but that of your father and his allies." Wouldn't violence have to, you know, begin? And isn't the fact that it hasn't kind of Pompey's doing, what with the running away and all? In any case, Quintus is unimpressed with the offer: "Two full moons will see you on a spike in the forum." Mark Antony furiously calls Quintus a wretch (a wretch? Brrrr!), but Caesar just mildly instructs that Quintus be put astride a horse. Dude, your niece already gave you one horse. Now you're going to steal another one? Ingrate.