The Shield of Rome

216 BC. The two great super powers of the ancient world, Rome and Carthage are engaged in a life and death struggle to control the known world. Hannibal, the legendary Carthaginian general leads his army across the Alps into Italy and inflicts three mighty disasters upon the poorly led Romans. After the battle of Cannae, Rome's worst ever defeat in her history, it seems inevitable that the proud Roman republic will fall. In Rome only one man, Quintus Fabius Maximus seems to have the strength to guide the panic stricken city through the crisis. His heroic spirit rallies his countrymen and a divided Senate but his life is put in danger when a ruthless assassin arrives in Rome with orders to kill Fabius.