Aulus Cornelius is the scion of the Cornelius family, and the younger master of the Villa Cornelia. He has spent three years in Spain as a soldier, and is the love interest of the slave girl Chloe from afar. Aulus is a conservative, traditional Roman, who wants to see stolen lands returned to the poor, and corruption in the Senate reformed. He becomes the chief bodyguard of Tiberius, a conservative populist Senator, who believes in the same things. When Aulus defends Tiberius against an attack, he must flee Rome, and is thereafter banished.
