It is 68AD and Flavian Vespasian rules. Marcus Attilius leaves his home for Rome. He gains unpaid gambling debts and an affair with the wife of Rome's richest man. To get away he joins the Fifth legion in Judea fighting at the famous siege of Jerusalem and Masada. Critically injured he ends up in Sicily and returns to Rome to join a gladiator school in his quest to become First Gladiator of Rome.