A Roman legion on the march, somewhere, late 1st Century B.C. - 1st Century A.D.

▪────"Roma, Roma, invicta,
Legio, legio, fortis,
Roma, Roma, invicta,
Invincibilis et ferox!"────▪

Rome, a nation that has shocked the world in every sense of the word. From humble beginnings as a rump kingdom in Latium, she has taken on enemy after enemy, and has stood tall despite every imaginable setback. From multiple defeats against the Samnites, to a grueling war of attrition against Epirus, and the loss of three fleets during the Punic Wars, Rome's ingrained resilience has allowed her to stand the test of time, and to carve out an empire for herself which is the envy of many.

Though Rome's achievements are remarkable, she's by no means achieved her fullest potential, nor is her supremacy in the Mediterranean unchallenged. Having humiliated Carthage a little under a hundred years ago, Rome has made herself many enemies who are more than eager to curb her power. Among them are the Carthaginians themselves, the Greek city-states, the Seleucids and other peoples who all vie against her.

Rome, c. 150 B.C

Pretty self-explanatory map of Greece, c.200 B.C

Greece, c.146 B.C after Macedon's defeats in the third and fourth Macedonian Wars

▪────────────────────────────────▪

Marcia Nerva Bellatrix, daughter to Junia Nerva Bellatrix and Quintus Aemilius Paullus, was born in Reate, in Sabium. Marcia's childhood was the same kind of childhood to be expected of any patrician. Educated by a pedagogue and raised to one day become a senator like her mother, Marcia seemed to be a promising youth, that was until, to her surprise, she discovered her parents had been unable to conceive children, for which reason her mother adopted her, the daughter of a plebeian, in secret. This discovery of her true ancestry caused Marcia to attempt to approach her commoner roots, hoping to some day find her biological parents. While her adoptive parents were somewhat wary of allowing Marcia to expose herself to the life of commoners, and to interact with them, they decided to allow her to do so, and took certain precautions to "supervise" her interactions with the common folk.

Her parents began to believe this eccentricity of their daughter's would turn out to be rather harmless, and might even help her later on in her career, since she'd have the ability to earn popular support, given the fact that she would at least have an idea of what a day of work looks like for a plebeian. However, they quickly began to worry about another possibility, that of her developing feelings for a plebeian.

Rather than allowing room for a situation of this kind to develop, her parents decided to send her off to the military, this move being made in order to allow Marcia to continue her "exploration" of the commoner's lifestyle while she remained in a rather contained environment. While her parents' intent was that of keeping her in an officer's position, Marcia insisted on climbing the ranks from the very bottom, something she's done mostly owing to her personal merits, but also thanks to some "light" intervention by her parents.