This is Rome, "where no one knows who is his friend and who is his enemy; where depravity is valued more than virtue, and where principles are only the servants of self-interest." The plot of the novel unfolds against the background of a historical break - the transformation of the late Roman Republic into a powerful empire. The previously unknown Gaius Octavius, the eighteen-year-old great-nephew of Julius Caesar, finds himself on the cusp of brutal and dramatic events that lead him to the heights of power...