After the assassination of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard proclaims his uncle Claudius, brother of the famous Germanicus, as the new emperor. However, in fact, the reins of government of Rome are taken over by three clever Greek freedmen - Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus. To strengthen their position in the shadow of the crown, they need to strengthen the power of Claudius, winning for him the love of the legions and the Roman plebs. The Greeks are developing a cunning plan - to send troops to conquer Britain and attribute all the strategic merits to Claudius. And in order to show the emperor himself as a hero and wise ruler, it is necessary to find and return to Rome the imperial golden eagle - the great symbol of the Seventeenth Legion, lost during a defeat somewhere in the dense forests of Germany about forty years ago. This difficult task is entrusted to Vespasian, who does not even suspect that the Greeks did not initiate him into all the details of their sophisticated intrigue.