Before Julius Caesar ruled Rome, his uncle Gaius Marius was the most powerful man in the eternal city. Once a provincial nobody with a ruined family, Marius only had one way to power: the sword.

Years later, he writes to his protégé Quintus Sertorius, explaining to him how he rose through the ranks of the Roman legion to become the most powerful man in the Republic. He wants to encourage and inspire the young man but gets lost in the retelling of his first experience of war, love, and killing.

A polarizing man from the beginning, Marius was doomed to have people singing his praises or cursing his name. Now, for the first time, Marius speaks for himself.