Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer: Theophilus Or Zenobia?

The Expeditions: Rome Divide and Conquer quest can take up a considerable amount of your time in Asia Minor, and will take you across the entire region before its completion. Like any good RPG, Expeditions: Rome has many ways of finishing some quests, and alliances you make will dictate the future of the Roman Republic. This quest in particular is about creating an ally in Asia Minor to help you oppose King Mithridates, and there are two main candidates to choose from. So, if you're playing through the Expeditions: Rome Divide and Conquer quest, and want to know whether to select Theophilus or Zenobia, read on. 

• During this quest, you can run into the Expeditions: Rome Olympian quest, which you may also need our guide for

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Starting The Quest

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Divide and Conquer is a mainline story quest in Expeditions: Rome and will be picked up on the ship between Lesbos and mainland Asia Minor when talking to Lucullus. It will direct you toward the Temple of Apollon to begin with, asking you to speak to the current ruler of Mysia. 

Once you get there, the current leader is the high priest Theophilus, and he will be standing by a fountain near the top of the temple. He doesn't exactly have a friendly demeanour with Romans and will kindly inform you he won't kill you in front of Apollo. From there you can respond in a few ways.

If you have already taken Mysia and deployed your forces to the outpost there, you can threaten him by claiming the temple as yours. The other two options do the same thing and continue the conversation, but there are different personalty traits associated with the responses to keep in mind. Carry on through the conversation and there is another option to threaten him with your legion.

The goal of the conversation is to get him to withdraw his troops from the siege of Kyzikos, but he will refuse and ultimately send you on your way. This isn't the end though, and on your way out of the temple, you can speak to a woman called Zenobia. 

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She will claim that Theophilus murderer her husband who was the rightful ruler of Mysia, and ask to help her get revenge in exchange for withdrawing the Mysian troops and forming an alliance with Rome.

You have to assassinate him in some way, and going through the conversation options will give you the optional task of finding poison, correspondence with King Mithridates that can use to trick Theophilus into meeting you at a secluded spot, or triggering a pressure point to make him attack you in the temple.

• Still need some hints for the game? Check our Expeditions: Rome tips.

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Poison

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If you decide to take the poison route in this quest, you can find poisonous bay leaves from a merchant in Troas, during the quest Whack A Mole. It will cost 400 denarii to purchase a lethal amount, but once you have acquired them, the goal to find poison will be complete, and the quest will direct you back to the Temple. 

Once there, you need to find someone who will poison Theophilus for you. A student of his called Rhianus makes the perfect candidate, and can be found near the top of the temple, inside a little garden area. Speak to Rhianus and ask if he likes his master, and after he finishes responding, you can ask if him to put the bay leaves in Theophilus' tea.

There are two ways to convince Rhianus to poison his master. Firstly, with the ethos rhetorical style, you can threaten his family if he doesn't agree, or you can agree to pay him 1000 denarii to do so. Both options will cause him to accept tentatively, but he will complete the task and kill Theophilus for you. For the next section of the quest, go talk to Zenobia again.

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Pressure Point 

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After talking to Zenobia, directly up the stairs near her are two NPCs that are discussing Theophilus, and one of them will reveal that she is his secret lover. She will depart from the conversation after this, and walk toward a secluded area near a statue where you can go speak to her.

You can enquire a little about Theophilus, and mention you overheard what she said, and then are given two options to proceed. With the pathos rhetorical style you can manipulate her into helping you, or just straight up murder her in cold blood. Doing the latter will let you loot her medallion and show it to Theophilus, which will cause him to attack and start a combat encounter.

Once you have killed Theophilus and his guards, you can return to Zenobia for the next section of the quest. 

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Correspondence

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You can search the Apollon temple for Theophilus' correspondence with King Mithridates. This is located in a chest near a temple in the top left of the area that is on fire when you first encounter it. You can help put out the fire to get to the documents then and there, or return later when the fire has gone and pick them up. 

Once the documents are acquired, you have to meet Syneros back at the outpost where he will tell you that he can forge Mithridates handwriting to lure Theophilus into a secret meeting. He suggests you can solve the matter with no bloodshed, which you can agree with or suggest murdering him instead.

After the conversation ends, he will forge the letter, and you will be directed back to Zenobia at the temple. Tell her of your plans, and she will deliver the letter to Theophilus, prompting you to go to the secret meeting spot to carry on the next section of the quest.

Next you need to go meet Theophilus at the mountain-top ruins to the east of the Temple of Apollon. He will be surprised and ask if you intend to kill him, which prompts Zenobia to enter the scene and tell him that's the plan. This will cause Theophilus to try and reason with you, where he will explain that Zenobia's husband was a bad ruler, and even claim he will be on your side moving forward.

There are a multitude of options from here, and you can choose between arresting or killing both characters.

• You can get two unique weapons in this quest. Check our Expeditions: Rome unique equipment list, to see how.

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Kill Or Apprehend Theophilus

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If you choose to kill him, you will start an animation where your character performs the deed, before talking to Zenobia once more, where she asks you to talk to her back at the temple. Back at Apollon, she will inform you of a chance to sneak into Mithridates camp unnoticed, as she needs you to go and destroy evidence of a pact between Mysia and Mithridates that gave them the right to Troas. 

You will need to head to a scout camp, where you'll undertake a combat encounter to steal some uniforms that will allow you into Mithridates' Warcamp. Once the uniforms have been acquired, head to the warcamp, and you can sneak into Mithridates' tent with ease and steal the documents from his desk. Afterwards, just head back to Zenobia to give her the contract and complete the quest. You will earn 140 XP for doing so, and a trophy for putting Zenobia in charge of Mysia. 

Expeditions Rome Divide And Conquer Quest: Kill Or Apprehend Zenobia

If you instead choose to kill or apprehend Zenobia, things don't change too much, but Theophilus will be put back in charge of Mysia. You will need to head back to the Temple of Apollon to talk to him, and he will also task you with sneaking into Mithridates' Warcamp to steal the agreement between him and Mysia. 

Finish the quest by following the steps from the previous section, as they are the same, but you will gain a different trophy for finishing it and siding with Theophilus.

That's our walkthrough of the Expeditions: Rome Divide and Conquer quest, and now you know all the different outcomes and methods of finishing the quest.

We also have a guide on the Expeditions: Rome Vineyard quest which will require some swift decision-making.