140AD - The Rise to Empress || [GxG] ||

Chapter 1

Year: 139AD

It was mid-summer in the small city of Polis situated close to the capital of Italy, the sun was shining bright on the day, burning hot on the skins of the Gladiators and Gladiatrix in training. Grunts came from each warriors' chests as they swung their steel and iron swords with brute force toward each other. At the Gladiatorial academy, they didn't bother fighting with wooden swords. Once the warriors would come of age at eighteen summers old, it was gone with the wooden swords and in with iron and steel depending on their strength. Nevertheless, the children would still spar with wooden sticks to hone their developing skills of strategy and reflexes.

Most of the warriors at Maximus' Gladiatorial academy were slaves bought by rich Senators or Princes from Persia that visited Rome for extensive periods of time. Maximus' academy was one of the best in all of Rome and many times throughout the years they would reach capacity but Emperor Titus would continuously fund Maximus to expand his academy. The games had to go on and without thousands to entertain the crowds the city will lose revenue.

With thousands of Gladiators at his exposal, Titus was sure to host games in the Colosseum for weeks at end, sometimes even months. The games kept the unemployed and bored occupied all the while gaining everyone's approval. The approval that every Empreror so desperately seeks. However, Emperor Titus was a little different from those before him. He believed in death and bloodshed; no Gladiator life was to be spared.

In preparation for the games, Maximus had specific trainers in place for each class of fighting they taught at the academy. There were five classes: The Myrmillo who wore a helmet in battle along with their oblong shields and sword. The Retiarius who normally fought the Myrmillo; the Retiarius were odd warriors and not so common. They fought with a trident-like spear and a net that they would throw over their opponents, essentially trapping them for an easier kill. It wasn't a favored class since it hardly ever pleasured the bloodthirsty crowds.

On the other hand, the Samnite were common among the slaves since they wore visored helmets along with an oblong shield and sword. Helmets were favored items when the games became a little unorthodox and those at the brink of death and defeat became desperate. The helmets protected the dominant fighter from eye-gouging and a desperate hand full of sand to the eye; the two moves that could undoubtedly change the whole outcome of a fight. The Thracian, also known as the Thrax whom fought with a curved blade named a sica; quite different from the Myrmillo and Samnite, preferred rounded shields that worked much more effectively in the means of maneuverability.

And last but not least, the class Maximus himself taught; The Dimachaerus who wielded and fought with two blades at once.

On this abnormally heated day, Maximus was in hard training with four warriors at once, one of which was his daughter, Alexandria. Maximus was an experienced soldier and was a General in two of Titus' Legionnaire's fifteen years ago where he led them to victory against the Barbarians.

After the battle, all he requested was to return home to his family which the Emperor granted him under the circumstances that he would not let his skills go to waste and that he would take over the existing Gladiatorial academy in Polis which Maximus gladly accepted.

However, at the time, he didn't exactly expect his daughter to take up an interest in fighting with swords and occasionally getting bruised and beat up in the process. She came of age three years ago making her a mere twenty-one summers. Nor Maximus or his wife Becca envisioned this for their daughter when she was a child but the gods had a will of their own. If the two parents had it their way, Alexandria would've already been married to a loyal Roman soldier.