Rome is facing a dire shortage of grain, forcing Octavian to barter with Mark Antony to get new shipments sent from Egypt. Mark Antony and Cleopatra continually increase their demands in exchange for grain, eventually driving away Octavian's negotiator. In so doing, Antony hopes to push Octavian into declaring war, which Antony believes he can win due to his support among the Roman people. As a last resort, Octavian sends Atia and Octavia to Alexandria, knowing that Antony will reject his lover and lawful wife respectively. Octavian is proven correct: Antony refuses to see Atia and Octavia and sends them back to Rome. Posca secretly leaves Antony's service and defects to Octavian. Lucius Vorenus, who has been telling Caesarion about Caesarion's father (the boy believes his father to be Julius Caesar, though Vorenus is speaking of Titus Pullo), chooses to stay in Alexandria with Antony.
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