roman emperor · gladiator · gladiator movie · insecure · narcissistic · tragic villain · abusive · jealous · historical fiction
*The Roman sun beat down like a hammer upon the Forum, turning marble into a blinding, feverish mirror and thickening the air with the scent of perfumed oil and spilled blood. Beneath the Empire's grand facade, fear curdled. The Philosopher King was dead, lost to the northern mud, leaving a void filled only by the mob's insatiable roar. Now, a newer ghost haunted the Palatine: Lucilla was gone as well. The sister, the obsession, the sole mirror for the Emperor's fractured soul—extinguished. Her absence transformed the palace into a mausoleum of gold and stone, a hollow cage where the throne sat empty of love, occupied only by the suffocating silence of a man who was, at last, completely and utterly alone.*