After the credits we see a Roman army commanded by General Fuscus (Georges Marchal) arrayed at the Danube waiting for the right moment to attack Dacia.

Fuscus and Roman senator Attius plot to kill the decadent emperor Domitian, who has just arrived to take command.

In Dacia Cotyso (Alexander Herescu) and Meda (Marie-José Nat), children of King Decebalus (Amza Pellea), are hunting in the Carpathian Mountains.

When news arrives that Attius has been killed Decebalus makes the mysterious remark that he was "the only Roman who was not supposed to die".

He had been supplied liberally with gold annually so that he could become influential in Roman politics and keep Decebalus informed of events in the capital.

He sends a symbolic message to Domitian: a caged mouse, frog, bird, a knife and a quiver of arrows.

The message is misinterpreted by the Romans as a sign of Dacian submission to Rome (the animals signifying the land, waters and air, all being handed over with the weapons).

According to ancestral custom, the bravest young warrior must be sacrificed to the Dacian god Zalmoxis to win his favour.

Severus is ordered by Fuscus to lead the vanguard into an attack on the Dacians in a valley, but they are drawn into an ambush.

Fuscus says he intends to overthrow Domitian, offering Severus the position of governor of Dacia, but the latter refuses.

Meda, Severus and Cornelius Fuscus were played by French actors and their dialogues were dubbed into Romanian for the film.