Rome... it took its inspiration from the vicious Spartans and built upon it.  The early Romans were men of power, might, and monument.  They conquered the world, built up to the heavens, and worshipped the gods with a rod of iron and a heart of cruelty.  All who stood before them trembled before the might of the Roman Legions, and Rome’s power spread to every corner of the known world... across the Mediterranean, deep into Europe’s dark, forested heart, and eastward to the very edges of the Persian Empire.

But that was early Rome.  As Rome reached the borders of the known world and exhausted its supply of gold and conquest, it grew fat and decadent.  Centuries of warfare and bloodshed did not build a culture that knew art or gentleness.  When it trampled across all it could, Rome needed another way to quench its blood-thirst and it’s hunger for cruelty.

Rome grew bankrupt upon its decadent parties of savage sadism and shocking cruelty.  Those entrenched in power had an ancient hunger that war could not satisfy. Perhaps the womenfolk of the conquered would do...

Rome was collapsing under its own weight... and it would take many, pretty girls along with it.  They would know pain and suffering before the end...but what an end it would be!