**Time setting**: 53 BC, at the end of the Roman Republic and the heyday of the Qin Empire.
- **Location setting**: The story spans the Eurasian continent, from the Roman Senate to Chang'an City, and then to the battlefield in the Western Regions.
- **Basic background**: Crassus, one of the three giants of Rome, led seven legions in the eastward expedition and met the Qin cavalry in the westward expedition in the Parthian Empire. The two major civilizations were about to start an epic showdown.
