Genevieve Foster speaks of her unique series of books as "history sliced horizontally" or "a world stage on which all important characters appear simultaneously." Of this book she says:

"This is a story of the world, centered in old Rome during the lifetime of Augustus Caesar . . . Augustus was only a boy of eighteen when our story opens in March, 44 B.C. with the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar.

The story tells of the exciting events that followed the death of Caesar . . . of the conspirators Brutus and Cassius, of Anthony and Cleopatra and their famous love affair, of Cicero the orator and Virgil the poet, of Herod, the hated King of Judaea, of Hillel, the wise and patient rabbi and of Jesus, the boy of Nazareth.

"What was it like — that ancient world under the Roman law? How did people live and travel? What did they believe? What did they think about the stars and planets? Did they even mention the atom? . . . What of ancient China? And of India? And of those undreamed of continents that would one day be America — were civilized people living there? And what of the rest of Europe — the Britons, the people in the deep forest of Germany and along the rivers of France? What were their customs and their gods? And above all, what thoughts and beliefs were in that old world that will be forever new and forever true, no matter in what century or what land or by what race of people they have been spoken? The answers to some of these questions may be found in this book."

From the dust jacket