When power is nothing more than a Hell of your own making, who will stay by your side?

Plucked from his rural hometown and thrust into power as a child, Roman Emperor Elgabus did his best to navigate his grandmother’s manipulations, deadly politics, and the enemies lurking in the shadows of his own mind. After divorcing the love of his life in an effort to protect her, Elgabus succumbs to the darkness, falling deeper into despair.

Years pass as he loses himself in a haze of drink and parties, even whoring himself out at a local brothel dressed as a woman. But everything changes when Elgabus meets Zoticus, a gladiator who falls deeply in love with him despite the strange mysteries surrounding his past.

Just when things seem to be looking up, the only woman he has ever loved stumbles back into his life forcing him to confront his sordid past, even if it means losing Zoticus forever.