More than Conquerors

Episode 1 - Lavinia Lavinia is a young woman from a mercantile family. Her father, Fabian, spends beyond his means. He dies of smallpox, leaving his family in debt. Aided by her lover, her jealous, bitter mother sells Lavinia into slavery in the Emperor Nero’s court. Lavinia becomes a maid for Nero’s wife, Poppaea. Iceni slave, Gitta, is resentful of Lavinia as her position has been usurped. Led by Poppaea, Lavinia dances for Nero. Nero is so bewitched by her beauty that he sleeps with her. Poppaea is jealous of Lavinia and manipulates Nero into thinking that Lavinia is using witchcraft to seduce him. Her plans work against her, and Nero lashes out in violence. Terrified and disgusted, Lavinia flees the court. An accident causes the Great Fire of Rome to begin. It starts in the shop of a man who is a Christian. Episode 2 – Tinder and Ashes Greek man, Damien, moves to Rome from Greece with his family to look for a better life. Damien and his wife Cassandra work in the purple cloth trade. Members of the dyers guild are resentful of Damien’s branching into purple. Damien comes home from business one day to find it engulfed in flames. It is too late to rescue his family. Bereft, Damien helps other families put out fires. In the meantime, Lavinia, contemplating suicide, encounters Tirzah (The Apostle Peter’s wife) and becomes friends with her. Tirzah looks after her, introduces her to her husband and shares her Christian faith with her. Initially Lavinia is suspicious of Peter, thinking that he will turn out to be like Nero, but this is proven to be baseless. Lavinia is drawn to the freedom of the faith and their genuine love. Once the worst of the fire is out, Nero sends a message via Gitta for Lavinia to return. Peter and Tirzah argue re. the outworking of Christian values of freedom and submission to authorities. With the support of Tirzah, Lavinia sends a message back to the emperor upholding her new-found faith as a weapon against submitting to his demands. Nero is deeply angered at being thwarted. Episode 3 – Playing the Part Nero’s friends, Piso and Flavus, scheme against him. A group of people openly hurl torches at the flames, shouting that they were given orders. Word reaches Nero that he is being blamed for starting the great fire. Piso reminds Nero of a time when he was watching a performance of the Iliad and declared his envy for Priam at seeing both the destruction of his city and his reign. Poppaea encourages Nero to turn the blame onto the Christians, misusing something that Jesus said about ‘not coming to bring peace but a sword’. She also encourages him to play on his mythical role as Apollo, the embodiment of light. In the meantime, Lavinia is hiding away, expecting serious consequences for her resistance to the Emperor. Peter and Tirzah remind her of the light that is shining in her as a follower of Jesus. Damien approaches a work gang building a viaduct and offers himself up as a freeman labourer. Through a series of circumstances, he ends up in Nero’s palace and is mistaken for being one of the slaves. Nero agrees to start a campaign against the Christians. Episode 4 – Candles Back on the Aulius estate, Julia also dies of the smallpox. Salammbo is able to make her own escape at this time and heads in the direction of Rome. Nero has Lavinia and Pollux captured and bought in for punishment – to be burnt to death. Salammbo meets a stallholder at the market who knew Pollux. The stallholder tells her that Pollux has been captured and sent to the court. He’s planning to watch the burning as a form of entertainment. Disgusted, Salammbo nevertheless follows the stallholder as she hopes to find some information about Lavinia that way. Having been handed her body to prepare for death, Damien puts an extra layer of material around the clothing being used to burn her so that although the outside would burn, her skin would be protected. She reminds him of his wife. Gitta aids him. She never wanted her resentment of Lavinia to lead to her death. As the bodies of several Christians burn, Damien watches. Lavinia faints but Salammbo, who is also watching, is convinced she is dead and is determined to find a way to pay her last respects. Damien gets her body down and tends to Lavinia in an underground vault. Salammbo sees where he takes her. Waking, Lavinia tells Damien her story. Damien is attracted to her, but nothing happens romantically as Salammbo bursts in on them from an underground pipe. Much rejoicing between Salammbo and Lavinia. With Lavinia recovered, they escape from the vault in secret.