Faced with the specter of defeat at the hands of the Cimbri barbarian horde in 113 B.C., the Roman Republic must choose between annihilation or a dictatorship that would shake its political foundations to the core.
As the Roman generals lead their mighty legions into the lands surrounding Italy, none of them could have anticipated the turmoil which would be caused by one bold mercenary: Spartacus.
Marcus Aurelius inherits the empire at its peak, but war soon breaks out on two fronts and a plague devastates the population; Marcus' successor Commodus eschews the dangerous life of a soldier for a more luxurious existence in Rome.