It
is the beginning of the year 45 BCE in the city of Rome. The civil war against
the Pompeian’s’ led by Julius Cesar is continuing as Cesar travels the world to
finish killing every last Pompeian. Back in Rome, Cato, a very busy Politian is
campaigning the city of Rome in opposition of Julius Cesar’s dictatorship in
hope of his removal from office upon his return. Cato’s daughter, Porcia, is young,
beautiful and very intelligent. With her
family in the senatorial class, she is expected to follow a very prestigious way
of life. Every day she awakes in her private portion of a large villa atop
Palatine Hill, where she rarely leaves. Cato has purchased the best Greek prisoner
of war he could find to tutor his precious Porcia as well as other slaves for
the cooking, cleaning and maintaining her quarters of the house. With Cato’s
busy agenda he rarely spends time with his daughter but when he does he
primarily speaks of his work in the city and his desire for her to marry his apprentice,
Octavio. Octavio is young, ambitious and bound to be a senator with the amount
of time and effort he has put forth. The only problem is Porcia has a plan of
her own. She sits at her window every
day at sunset looking over the city in wonder as to if she will ever be able to
leave this comfortable life in the villa to explore herself and Rome on her own
terms. One night while Cato was away overnight for business, Porcia fled to the
heart of town, the Roman Forum. It was late and dark, the only people around
were the plebs cleaning up from the long day at market. Porcia turned a corner
to see what else she could find, and suddenly bumped into a boy. He apologized,
looked into her eyes and said, “Hello, I’m Fabius. Come with me.” She stood
still and looked back at him as her heart sank, reached for his hand and the
two went running down the alleyway. At that very moment she knew that her life
would was going somewhere very different, somewhere she only went in herd
dreams. But what will Cato think when he returns to the villa with Porcia nowhere
to be found?
