What would have happened if, on the evening of August 2, 216 B.C., after his crushing victory at Cannae over the troops of the Roman Republic, the Carthaginian commander Hannibal had ordered his officers to march on Rome and to conquer the barely defended Tiber city, 400 kilometres away, and raze it to the ground forever? In 133 BC, the tribune of the people, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, demanded a redistribution of the Roman state land in favour of impoverished peasants. In doing so, he attacks the big landowners among the senators. A deadly power struggle ensues. He is an ingenious tactician, a seducer of men, a narcissist: in 44 BC Gaius Iulius Caesar has himself appointed dictator for life by the Senate and thus initiates the downfall of the Republic.