On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, an explosive charge of more than 15 kilotons fell on the city of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of people were pulverized, and everything within four square miles was instantly destroyed. A deluge of flames and ash had just caused Japan’s greatest trauma and changed the course of modern warfare and life on Earth forever. The world was horrified by the existence of the bomb—the first weapon of mass destruction. But how could such an appalling tool be invented?

64 AD JC Lucius is the strongest and most adulated gladiator in Pompeii. His image pleases Julius, a wealthy landowner eager to be elected tribune of the plebs. The arrangement is made: Lucius supports him in his candidacy and will take Julius' daughter as his wife. But Lucius' final fight does not go as planned: facing a colossus, Lucius loses his arm and his dignity.