In this episode, Claudius, the most unlikely of the Augustan family, becomes one of the greatest emperors of the Roman Empire, only to fall victim to a brutally ambitious wife. A highly principled philosopher named Seneca finds himself compromised as a tutor to one of the earliest of the "enfants terribles," Nero. In Britain, a warrior queen named Boudicca battles Roman legions and, in Judea, the Jewish people revolt. Under Nero's erratic rule, Rome nearly burns to the ground. The empire is on the edge of disaster.

Note: This is part 3 of a series of 4 parts.