The fate of real historical figures - Claudius and Messalina, Seneca, young Nero, the struggle for power, palace intrigues, insidious and brutal murders, bloody revenge are conveyed through the perception of the young Roman Minucius Manilian, the hero of the novel by the famous Finnish prose writer Mika Valtari. Minucius in Striving To pursue a military career, he goes to Britain, then the roads of life lead him to Corinth, Athens, Cilicia, and after returning to Rome, he becomes a witness and participant in the bloody events at the court of Caesar. The women in Manilian's life - Lugunda, the daughter of one of the kings of the Britons, Claudius, Sabina, Poppaea - do not give him happiness, but in many ways determine his fate, for each of them is a representative of a certain layer of Roman society, the life and customs of which are so vivid and authentic drawn by the author of the novel.