EMPIRE

Rome, 44 B.C. Conqueror Julius Caesar returns from his triumph in Spain to a neglected Republic in poverty and a Senate corrupted with power. As the Ides of March draw near, blood will be spilled, and, before it is done, the fate of the Roman Empire will fall upon the shoulders of one man…

Octavius, Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, exults with all of Rome in the dictator’s homecoming. But unrest, anger, and resentment seethe within Caesar’s intimate cabal of nobles. Only days later on March 15, surrounded by his conspirators—including Cassius and Brutus (James Frain, “Sparticus”) of the Senate—Caesar is felled by twenty-three stab wounds. General Marc Antony believes he will now assume the throne, but Caesar’s dying wish is for the impetuous and inexperienced Octavius to become his heir. The young rogue, raised in privilege and pleasure, has never seen a battlefield. Marc Antony will not stand for this—nor will the assassins who vow to annihilate Caesar’s entire bloodline.

But Octavius has found an ally in Tyrannus (Jonathan Cake, Noah’s Ark), a gladiator sworn to protect him and help secure the boy’s inherited throne. First, however, they must wrest the tenuous power from Antony’s devious grasp. Coming to learn the meaning of death-defying friendship and intimate betrayal, Octavius—christened the Emperor Augustus—emerges as arguably the single most important figure in Roman history. What unfolds under his spectacular reign is an end to the advancing decay of the Republic and the establishment of a new Roman government that was to endure for three centuries. Here is the story of the rise to power of one man—both ruthless and loving, implacable and forgiving—who would negotiate the dangerous seas of the last era of the Roman Revolution.