This book continues the journey into ancient Rome begun in Masters of the World, the first volume of the "Pax Romana" cycle—a sweeping fresco of the Roman world at the beginning of our era. The Empire ruled over almost every part of the globe known at that time. The army had become a collective figure, acting as a vector of assimilation and integration. Tranquilized by peace, the Urbs—a true bridge between different cultures, religions, and backgrounds—was at its peak. But although Rome had finally overcome its enemies, incessant worries overwhelmed the old age of Augustus, tired and alone at the height of power. The government of the world remained to be organized. An arduous and tedious task, both internally and externally. The Emperor struggles to cope with administrative difficulties, the confusing intrigues that arise and unravel around the problem of succession, the selfishness of those around him, their senseless passions, jealousies, and irregular love games. Other causes of trouble in Germanic politics. The immense trans-Rhenish territories between the Rhine and the Albis (the Elbe) are in purely formal subjection. The new province has not yet been Romanized; the warlike tribes are stealthily evading it. The attempts made by the imperial legate to introduce Roman usage and strengthen central authority are causing growing discontent. And from the East, the insignificant Judea, always unstable, is posing challenges of even greater complexity: the governor of Syria cannot see clearly in such a tangled mess! Worn out and discouraged, the old Emperor nevertheless continued to tirelessly seek in his daily life the solution to the multiple problems that the administration of the world made necessary for him, so that Rome could preserve the Empire that it had obtained at the cost of so much blood and with the help of fortune.