Episode list

AD 79:- In the Roman port of Ostia Flavia Gemina, daughter of a prosperous citizen, meets Jonathan, her Jewish next door neighbour. Later Flavia buys a personal slave, an African girl whom she calls Nubia and the trio travel to the outskirts of Pompeii to stay with Flavia's uncle Gaius, discovering a mute boy, Lupus, has stowed away on board the ship. They rescue Pliny the Elder, the Roman writer and naturalist from drowning, but, during the Feast of Vulcan, it becomes apparent to Flavia that the volcanic mountain Vesuvius is about to erupt and, although she and her friends escape, Pliny is killed on a rescue mission to save those living at the foot of the mountain.

In the confusion following Vesuvius's eruption children appear to be missing and a girl called Julia asks Flavia to help find her brother, whom she believes has been kidnapped by slavers. Flavia suspects local patron Felix of being behind the abductions and goes, with her group, to his house, where she is shocked at the cruel treatment Felix's daughter Pulchra gives her slave. After Pulchra has beaten her too Nubia escapes with Kuanto, a runaway slave but soon Flavia and her friends have been captured by pirates. Only Lupus escapes and runs back for Felix to help. Felix is innocent and sends out a rescue party by which time Jonathan, using a potion of his doctor father's, has caused the pirates to hallucinate.

Flavia and her friends arrive in a refugee camp in the wake of the devastation at Pompeii, where they quickly discover a nefarious plot to kidnap orphaned children from among the refugees.

Jonathan's uncle Simeon comes to tell Jonathan that his mother, Susannah, was not killed at the siege of Jerusalem but is living in Rome as a slave to the emperor Titus. The two travel to Rome but are captured and Simeon is recognized as a former zealot who fought the Romans. He and Jonathan are placed in the Golden House, the quarter for Jewish slaves but, using one of the building's many secret passages, Jonathan gets to see his mother. Flavia and her party arrive in Rome to try and free Jonathan and thwart an assassination attempt. As a result Titus frees the slaves but Susannah decides to stay with him to try and persuade him to treat the Jews more kindly.

Jonathan is tricked into going to Rome with his uncle, Simian, and becomes entangled in a plot to assassinate Emperor Titus (Nicholas Farrell, "The Iron Lady").

Flavia's father has been ruined by the eruption of Vesuvius and, as the bankers come to repossess the villa, she and her friends go to Laurentum to stay with Pliny's young nephew, also called Pliny. He tells them that there is supposed to be a fabulous treasure buried just off the coast and Lupus becomes obsessed with diving to find it, especially as he sees the dolphins as good omen. However he almost dies after an octopus attack and is revived by Jonathan. Venalicius, the pirate leader, is also after the treasure and Lupus reveals that the man is his uncle, who betrayed the family. However Venalicius is killed by the octopus, bequeathing everything he has to Lupus and, whilst the treasure is never found. Flavia saves the family's fortunes by selling a valuable ornament.

Jonathan is upset that his father Mordecai is to marry his girlfriend Miriam and still holds out hope of reconciling him with Susannah. When plague sweeps through Rome Mordecai, as a doctor, is summoned to help, taking the children with him. Titus has had a prophetic dream in which a Prometheus will open Pandora's box and destroy Rome. Flavia believes this refers to Berenice, Titus's former partner, now confined to her quarters, in which a box taken to be the Ark of the Covenant is found. Jonathan is persuaded by Agathus, a slave with a grudge, to kill Titus but accidentally starts a fire, which destroys several buildings. Hearing too that his mother is dead - though in fact this was a ruse to prevent Berenice from harming her - a despairing Jonathan sees himself as being the Prometheus and joins a gladiatorial school. However Flavia, Nubia and Lupus, believing him to be dead, return to Ostia without him.