The Circus of Rome

The year was 66AD under Emperor Nero, but it wasn't the same for anyone living under his rule.

She was an ambivalent and cynical woman, one not easily touched. She came from her own world with her own burdens, thrust into the battle arena to be carried by the torrents of the bloodthirsty population.

He was a ruthless owner, seeking to control the tides, seeking to stay ahead of every one else. And it was easy for him to do that - to control. What he couldn't understand and explain was how he felt around her; how he surrendered to her. But he shouldn't, for she was his gladiatrix and she was his to die for. While the manipulative tides of Rome roared for her name - roared after her name, he found it increasingly hard to contain her spirit, found it hard to draw himself away from her, and most importantly, he found it difficult to protect her over his own interests.

She hated Rome. She hated its people. She hated how she felt here. She hated everything here, safe for the ones she cared about. She hated emotional obligations. All she wanted to do was to get out of the ring. She hated how he controls her destiny.

But what she doesn't know of is that Rome is bigger than she thought it would be; with its own mechanism, dynamics and a thirsty, throbbing pulse that demands more and more, until it spirals out of control. As she stays on, she is roped into the circus of Rome, with no easy way out.

Both are merely, like the others, ignorant organisms of the Roman circus who liked to think right of their worlds, but there are some things one cannot know; control fully or forever - Rome.

For Rome was not built in a day.