In 48 B.C., twenty-five years after the revolt of Spartacus, the slave leader's son Randus has grown to become a soldier in the Roman army. Stationed in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, Randus has been promoted to centurion by his commander, Julius Caesar, and is given an important task to accomplish; to travel to the city of Zeugma in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and learn of the secret plots planned out by the Roman governor of the eastern provinces, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Randus leaves Egypt on a war galley out to sea, accompanied by his decurion friend Lumonius, his Germanic servant Beroz, a Gallic officer named Vetius, and Vetius' sister Claudia.