In the 25th Century, a message to the past leads to humanity's near extermination, and the few survivors grasp at their only chance to reverse it: to convince a young Roman to get help from advanced aliens. So when Gaius Claudius Scaevola goes to sleep in an abandoned temple to Athene, he thinks he has had a dream. In it, Athene tasks him to save humanity, but he has a lot to do first. He is flattered he will be trained in Athene's military arts, but less thrilled when required to prove the Earth goes around the sun, to build an impossible machine, and to walk amongst the Gods and save them. There follows a prophecy of what will happen to him. When other parts of the prophecy start to become true he believes his dream and realizes humanity's salvation hangs on his quest. In Athene's Prophecy, the first in a series, Scaevola receives his military appointment and must learn strategy while avoiding a drunken Legatus and surviving the erratic Imperium of Caligulae, and also prevent chaos and an uprising in the hotbed of religious fervour that was Judaea as Christianity began emerging.