A prehistoric Italian warrior from the tribe that will someday become Rome. Because all great empires must arise from primitive beginnings.

The challenging part was combining this character's tribal aesthetic with design motifs that would make him recognizably Roman. In the end I settled on giving his shield eagle and wolf images, since eagles were used on the standards of Roman legions whereas a wolf was said to have suckled Rome's founders. The feathered crest attached to his headgear is supposed to represent a progenitor of the crests on Roman centurion helmets. As for the red and purple war paint, red is the color I most readily associate with ancient Rome, but the Emperors were fond of wearing purple too.