"Quousque tandem abutere patientia nostra...." thundered Cicero, that great Orator, (How long are you going to abuse our tolerance....?) He was inveighing against Catalina, a fellow Senator, who was being accused of bribery and mismanagement of funds, at home, and in the Dependencies, in his capacity as Governor. 'Aris' is a poor young man living in Malta at an age when the island was still a Dependency of Rome. Aris flaunts the Roman illegal extortion of tithes and taxes from the local people, ostensibly in payment for protection against bandits and pirates, (the military were paid directly by the Senate) but actually collected to line their own pockets. All this is done under the connivance and knowledge of the corrupt Roman Governor. For his rebellion, Aris is brutally punished and is propelled on a lifelong course for exacting revenge.