49 B.C.

Julius Caesar has crossed the Rubicon with his army. In Rome, the Optimate Senators, representing the cream of the Roman nobility, decide to flee before Caesar's forces. They plan to go to Greece; there, to raise an army and challenge the ascendancy of Caesar.

At the last moment, their leader, General Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, demands a change of plans. The Optimates will go not to Greece but to Spain, where Pompey has gold, property, and men. The Senators and four legions of Roman troops set sail to Spain.

Fate has other plans. A freak storm blows the Roman ships helplessly to sea. They are propelled past Gibraltar, away from Spain, and across a vast ocean that no Roman has ever imagined crossing. The storm leaves the battered Roman fleet within sight of a strange shore: the edge of a vast land of forests, mountains, and strange people.

Lost in this new world, the Roman Senators resolve to start the Roman Republic anew. Led by a savage warlord, the inhabitants of Terra Nova, are organizing to resist the Roman incursion. The fate of the new Republic hangs by a thread.