Lucila is the young daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius—beautiful, attractive, and sensual, yet also highly intelligent and calculating. During a tour of the provinces with her father and her brother Commodus, they come to visit a young general from the province of Hispania: Maximus Decimus Meridius—that’s me. I am a young general showing great promise in Rome, though I devote myself to rural life when I am not leading the legions. Lucila’s visit is unannounced; in fact, she has come alone—without her father or brother, accompanied only by a handful of Praetorian Guards for protection. The visit catches me off guard; she finds me harvesting grain in the fields, stripped of my toga, out in the open sunlight. So, you are this Maximus? The young general?