It follows the rise and, presumably, the fall of Emperor Nero. As expected with Ancient Rome, there are many conspiracies, assassinations, Gladiator Games and some Fanservice, all closely intertwined.
This comic provides examples of:
- Ancient Rome: The series is set in the early Roman Empire, around 54 AD.
- Clean Food, Poisoned Fork: The comic uses the theory that Claudius was poisoned by the feather used to make him vomit up the safe mushrooms that he only thought was poisoned.
- Crucified Hero Shot: A bizarre variation: One small panel is of Lucius' head, the panel underneath it has a huge T-shaped crowd of people with two strategically-placed columns representing the nails of the cross.
- Decapitation Presentation:
- Agrippina presents the head of Murena's mother to a dying Claudius because she was his lover.
- Massam decapitates a gladiator Barba decided to spare, throws the head at Barba just to show him how to finish the job.
- Depraved Bisexual: Massam, though it's in the Prison Rape sense towards men.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Lucius has returned to Rome, Nero is ready to forgive him (even after Lucius reveals he could have killed Nero and made it look like an accident)... so of course, Lucius suffers Easy Amnesia after an assassination attempt and is used as bait to lure Nero into a trap. Nero survives thinking Lucius betrayed him.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Agrippina punishes one of her maid who accidentally hurt her by ordering the other maids to hold her underwater. By the time she remembers to pull her out, it's too late and she doesn't even care.
- When Nero heards that Vestal virgin Rubria hosted his friend turned enemy Murena, he rapes her. When she dares to complain he allows Massam to take his turn.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: A Roman wrestler fends off an escaped lion during the fire of Rome, but doesn't survive.
- Enemy Mine: During the Gladiator Games, Draxius and Bulba briefly ally in order to kill the other two gladiators before pursuing their fight.
- Evil Matriarch: Agrippina, controlling and manipulating her son.
- Fanservice: Many women appear wearing exactly nothing.
- Fauxshadow: On multiple occasions, Nero displays fascination for the fire... While the burning of Rome does happen, it turns out that Nero isn't involved at all.
- Feeling Your Heartbeat: In the third volume, Agrippina goes to see Vespasian, one of Nero's friends, to question him about Nero's plans concerning her. During their conversation, she seduces him by telling him that her mother's heart suffers and takes his hand to put it on her chest to show him before putting it on her cheek. The two then sleep together and Vespanian reveals to Agrippina everything she wanted to know.
- Gladiator Games: A central point. Later Chariot Races feature prominently.
- A God Am I:
- Nero tends to think highly of himself. After he loses a chariot race, a poet survives making fun of this by appealling to this side of him: The gods, being perfect in every way, are always victorious, and find that Victory Is Boring. Nero, by nearly dying in his chariot's crash was searching for danger, the spice of a mortal life. Nero emphatically agrees, and rips off his toga to show his godly self. Cue the audience parroting "Your beauty is divine, O Caesar!".
- After the fire, Nero decides to build a palace worthy of his divinity by demanding enormous sums from his senators and decapitating those who don't pay up.
- Historical Hero Upgrade:
- While Nero is still a colossal prick who commits horrible crimes he does have a few Pet the Dog moments and is revealed to be innocent of the more heinous crimes he's been accused of (for instance, Britannicus's death is due to epilepsy, and the fire of Rome breaks out when Murena attacks Massam).
- Claudius was actually a Sadist, but due to the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness, it's downplayed in favor of other villains.
- Ironic Name: The aforementioned wrestler has a son named Androcles.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Agrippina seduces Vespasian (one of her son Nero's friends) into revealing what Nero has planned for her. In the next panel, she's kicking furniture in a rage, both because of Nero's scheming and because Vespasian couldn't get her off.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Nero has a few Fantasy Sequence conversations with the god Mercury. Considering they all happen when Nero is alone, it's possibly just his imagination.
- Locust in her dying breath correctly predicts that Agrippina will be killed by her son. Given the fact that they are already on bad terms, it's possibly just a lucky guess.
- Poppaea Sabina uses a Love Potion on Nero who then immediatly dumps his lover Acte for her. Given that Poppea is a beautiful Femme Fatale, it's not unlikely that Nero just lost interest in Acte.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Locust has more in common with Gollum than any other human in the series. The hunchback who later shows up is similarly deformed.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Murena inadvertently causes the Great Fire of Rome when he accidentally knocks over a lantern during his scuffle with Massem.
- Panthera Awesome: As if he wasn't scary enough already, Massam gets himself a black panther used to further terrify people.
- Parental Incest: Agrippina is willing to go to any lengths to keep her son subservient. Though the scene cuts just before anything happens, and Nero doesn't state whether or not he went for it.
- Past Victim Showcase: A rather cruel one, overlapping with Revenge by Proxy, when a dying Claudius is Forced to Watch the severed head of his lover Lollia Paulina, Murena's mother. It Amused Agrippina.
- Perfect Poison: Discussed between Locust and Agrippina, in order to kill Claudius safely.
- Pet the Dog: Nero, despite being very unsympathetic, is very affected by the death of his newborn daughter.
- Pyromaniac: Nero. The historians have several theories about the Great Fire of Rome
. Here, it's depicted as the god Mercury appearing to Nero and showing him the sunset coming to set the sea on fire, while also turning him into an Evil Redhead. - Red Right Hand: After his left hand gets injured, Massam builds himself a metal glove, with a long spike on the fist.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: In Locust's lair, there's a statue of the Gorgon Medusa with creepy snakes in her hair, which becomes a motif.
- Sex Starts, Story Stops: Out of nowhere, Murena engages a threesome with Claudia and her maid in the rain. What's worse is that happens right after his friend Barba dies.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: At first, Nero just wanted to make the city of Rome into a better, cleaner center of the universe.
- While Rome Burns: A variation from the historical accounts.
