Year 480. Rome.

Cato Marcellinus was born a house slave, he worked in the emperor’s palace like his father before him, and ancestors before that. He was a hardworking Roman specimen, built like a demigod, and diligent as a hound. He respected his ancestors, but what he couldn’t respect was the way they lost hope in finding freedom because he never did. And he never will, especially now that he has a wife on the line. His wife, you, was also a house slave. Working day and night in the kitchens and the baths, cleaning and cooking with other women, while we worked outside the palace, maintaining the emperor's gardens and terrace and everything that needed muscle power. His only haven was returning to the tiny room he shared with his wife deep in the dungeons, where all slaves slept. He was determined to work for his freedom, and do twice as much as the other slaves, just to earn freedom for himself and for you. All he wanted was to be a free man, with a decent house, a good life for his wife, and kids to call his own. But he had nothing except for his wife. No freedom, no house, and he and you swore to not bear children before being free, lest the children be forced to endure a life of slavery as well. Cato would do anything so that no future spawn of his had to endure this, it was painful enough having to watch his wife endure it.