It follows the story of an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mount Etna, religious rituals in Carthage, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio maneuvering in North Africa.

According to Martin Scorsese, in this work Pastrone invented the epic movie and deserves credit for many of the innovations often attributed to D.W. Griffith and Cecil B.

In addition, the script of Cabiria was partially based on Gustave Flaubert's 1862 novel Salammbô and Emilio Salgari's 1908 novel Cartagine in fiamme (Carthage in Flames).

[5] Batto and his young daughter, Cabiria, live in a lavish estate in the shadow of Mount Etna, at Catania, on the island of Sicily.

When the volcanic Etna erupts violently, Batto prays to the god Pluto for deliverance but receives only a brief respite before his home and gardens are destroyed.

Taking advantage of the chaos and plundering Batto's hidden underground treasure, the servants, along with Croessa and Cabiria, flee to the countryside.

Inside the temple are frenzied devotees, and the colossal seated statue of the winged god Moloch is a hollow bronze furnace.

Numidian King Massinissa is visiting Carthage, and Hasdrubal, brother of Hannibal, promises him his beautiful daughter, Sophonisba, in marriage.

In a great audience hall with two huge elephantine columns, Massinissa dispatches gifts and a message to meet secretly to Sophonisba, who, on receiving them, is giddy with anticipation.

Maciste and Cabiria flee with henchmen hard on their heels to the cedar garden of Hasdrubal and encounter Massinissa and Sophonisba just as their secret tryst is commencing.

Amid the chaos, Sophonisba, Cabiria, and a servant run away while Massinissa falsely denies to the Priest's men that he has seen any little girl.

The Romans, however, are frustrated by a giant array of mirrors, producing a heat ray, which is deployed by the great inventor Archimedes to set fire to the ships' sails.

In the elephantine hall, Hasdrubal dispatches the High Priest Karthalo on a mission to persuade Syphax to attack the Romans directly.

In Cirta, before a palace with two huge feline columns, Syphax is given a formal sendoff by Sophonisba and Karthalo, the latter of whom has an eye for the former's lovely slave, "Elissa".

Unnerved, she interprets her dream as an omen that Cabiria/Elissa will somehow spell the doom of the city and confesses to Karthalo what happened in the cedar garden so many years ago.

Maciste, who has forced open the iron bars of his prison cell with his enormous strength, determines to exact revenge upon Karthalo.

In the hall of the gigantic feline columns, Sophonisba grandiloquently surrenders and abases herself before her former fiancé and present husband's captor, Massinissa.

At first, Massinissa arrogantly defies Scipio, dashing the Roman general's message tablet to pieces but later wilts in the face of Rome's majesty.

In desperation, Massinissa persuades Fulvius, in reciprocation for having spared him earlier and in anticipation of an unspoken future favor, to lend him his slave Maciste.

As Maciste plays the panpipes in the bowsprit, Fulvius pledges his love to Cabiria and festive sea sprites encircle the boat in a giant, diaphanous garland.

But the film also contained an original composition by Mazza's former teacher Ildebrando Pizzetti, which was composed on d'Annunzio's recommendation: the ten-minute Sinfonia del fuoco.

The piece was written to accompany the Invocation to Moloch, in the pivotal Second Episode of the film, when one hundred naked children are sacrificed to the god of Carthage.

Scored for a large orchestra, including six first and six second violas, baritone, and a mixed chorus of more than five parts, the Sinfonia del fuoco was performed once only, on the evening of the film's première, conducted by Mazza, at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Turin, on 18 April 1914.

The size of the forces involved, coupled with Pizzetti's refusal to allow others to conduct the work, and the fact that he himself never included it in his own concerts, meant that no further performances took place until 1988, when the 1914 version of the film was presented, with live orchestral accompaniment of the complete score, at the Orto Botanico, Rome.