Skip to content Skip to footer
Watch Episodes Now!
Close
Welcome to the

Ancient Empire

Watch full

Episodes

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Behind the Scenes

Extras

Extras

32 Videos

BEHIND THE SCENES

ANIMATION

SERIES HIGHLIGHTS

Previous
Next
Series

Synopsis

Two ragtag monster trappers, Cornelius and Professor Centaur, collide with bloodthirsty creatures, ferocious barbarians, and scheming nobles when they are tasked with procuring the world’s most dangerous mythical beasts to fight in Rome’s gladiator games.

Surviving their perilous trapping missions is only half the battle. Enduring the chaos of everyday life in Rome is the other. From grain shortages and lethal plagues, to cyclopes’ uprisings and foreign invaders, the ancient city is always a hotbed of madness.

Luckily for the duo, they don’t have to navigate the bedlam alone. They’re supported by their friend Cupid, a mischievous misfit who often creates as many problems as he solves, and by their boss, Emperor Helena, the most powerful mortal in the Republic, who relies on Cornelius and Professor Centaur to fuel her monster trapping business.

Between the deadly monsters they battle on their adventures, and the constant threat of being swallowed whole by the pandemonium of Rome, what could go wrong?

Meet the main

Characters

Cornelius

Professor Centaur

Emperor Helena

Flavius

Cupid

Hadriana

Good Amadeus

Medusa

Old Senator

Join the

Empire

Imagine being able to help create Rick & Morty or Bojack Horseman in their infancy? That’s what we’re doing!   

We want YOU to help us determine the fate of the Roads To Rome series! In order to accomplish this, we’ve launched a Web3 project dubbed UnETHical Cupids.

Basically, it’s like a Patreon but offers members significantly greater benefits.

UnETHical Cupids will allow you to:

  • Voice characters
  • Pitch us characters of your own
  • Pitch us episode premises
  • Vote on character designs
  • Vote on which episodes come next
  • Be drawn into the series as cartoon characters
  • Receive producer, writer, & VA credits
  • Help us plan Season 2 and beyond

UnETHical Cupids will allow us to:

  • Create more episodes
  • Hire additional animators, storyboard artists & background artists to:
    • Add production value
    • Produce episodes much more quickly
    • Create Roads To Rome shorts

Need help?

If you are interested in purchasing but aren’t familiar with Web3, please DM us at @roadstoromeshow on Twitter or email us and our team will gladly walk you through the process!

What is

Roads To Rome?

Roads To Rome is an Animated Comedy Series Created by Joe Powell & Ryco Newton-Block & Animated by Benjamin Leffler.

  • Roads To Rome is the first original animated adult comedy series based in the ancient world.
  • As an independently produced comedy series, Roads To Rome is blazing a trail that allows viewers to not only consume the content they enjoy, but to directly leave their creative imprint on the series through the innovative Web3 medium.
  • Every episode (except the pilot) will have between a 12-to-18 minute run time.
  • Each season will be comprised of 8 episodes, including 1 community-generated episode per season!
  • Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow us on Twitter for real time updates. May Jupiter forever smile upon you!

Joe Powell

Co-Creator & Co-Producer

Read Bio

Ryco Newton-Block

Co-Creator & Co-Producer

Read Bio

Benjamin Leffler

Director of Animation & Co-Producer

View Website
Go To Top

Cornelius

Thoughtful/Kind
88%
Overthinks Situations
93%
Resourcefulness
86%

Cornelius is a monster-trapping apprentice working under Professor Centaur and Emperor Helena. Orphaned as a child, Cornelius was raised alongside other ragamuffins at Little Wanderers Orphanage. After graduating the orphanage, Cornelius set out on his own and went into business as an animal control boy.

Cornelius is in love with a local theater girl, Mira, but he isn’t sure if she feels the same way. Their relationship consists mostly of Cornelius flailing around in the friend zone hoping to see a romantic light at the end of the tunnel. 

Coming of age in the tumultuous metropolis is no stroll through the Pantheon, but it’s made a little easier with Cornelius’s lifelong friend, Cupid, and his trapping partner, Professor Centaur, by his side.

Professor

Centaur

Stubborn
98%
Patience for Stupidity     3%
Maverick
100%

Professor Arthur Centaur is a 176-year-old (middle-aged for a centaur) scholar, scientist, and mythical monster-trapping master from the hills of Sardinia. As a young pony boy, he had an insatiable hunger for knowledge. He devoured many books and studied under the tutelage of brilliant intellectuals. Before he had a chance to truly blossom, one of his experiments went terribly awry and he was exiled for 115 years.

Professor Centaur fled Sardinia and stumbled into a 46-year-long odyssey, traveling across the seas and beyond the known empire. 

He washed up in Rome and was hired by Octavius and Helena Leonardo. After Octavius’s death, Professor Centaur advised Helena and helped her to seize the Emperorship. He greatly admires and respects her. He serves her as a mythical monster-trapper and general advisor.

Emperor

Helena

Ambitious
95%
Authentic
85%
Demands Results
100%

Helena Leonardo was born of humble beginnings, but her intelligence and Machiavellian nature won her a seat in the Senate, where she caught the eye of her now deceased husband, the noble Senator Octavius Leonardo. After his untimely death, Helena’s rivals believed her house and its power would crumble. Instead, it rose to new heights under her rule, and then she seized the crown.

Helena understands that the most important aspect of staying in power is retaining the love of the common people. She utilizes the gladiator games, and the mythical creatures Professor Centaur and Cornelius trap to fight in them, to accomplish that objective.​

She’s authentic and doesn’t care for the charades and fake pleasantries of the elite class, but plays the game as needed. Being Emperor can be a dirty job, but Helena is always up to the task. She knows which palms to grease and which to check for daggers.

Flavius

Ruthless Loyalty
99%
Prone to Violence
88%
Likability     2%

Flavius was born in the poorest slums of Rome. He was a common street swindler known as “The Ferret,” a name he now despises. As a young man, he was convicted of distributing watered down wine to nobles and was condemned to lifelong servitude. 

Flavius bounced around from house to house being sold and traded until finally coming to work for Emperor Helena. Helena treated him fairly and he found purpose in life by serving her as an assistant and “fixer”.

Flavius will do anything asked of him, even if it requires cracking a few skulls. Empowered by the Emperor, he carries himself with a false sense of importance, operates on a never-ending power trip, and is disliked by most.

Cupid

Sleaziness
93%
Cunning
87%
Approval of his Father    3%

Cupid is a sleazy, yet lovable troublemaker who sells his matchmaking services to the highest bidder. He rubs elbows with Rome’s more nefarious characters and is always involved in some mischievous, borderline unethical plot to make money. He’s street smart and cunning, but his fast and loose approach to life inevitably leads to turmoil. ​

Despite his wild schemes and questionable decisions, Cornelius and Professor Centaur know that Cupid has a good heart, and they consider him to be their best friend. The trio is often found drinking together at the local pub, Venus’s Gap. ​

Cupid desperately seeks his father’s approval, but because of his lifestyle, his father Mars, the God of War, considers him a total disappointment.

Hadriana

Merciless
91%
Fury
90%
Gladiatorial Expertise
99%

Hadriana is a former gladiatorial champion revered throughout the Empire. She is most noted for killing 12 men and a Hydra armed with nothing but a soup ladle. She achieved fame fighting on the sands of the Colosseum and soon thereafter was hired by Emperor Helena as head gladiator trainer.

She’s a fierce instructor with a drill sergeant mentality. Her fury is as vicious as her tongue. Her merciless training program has made Helena’s gladiators the best in the Empire.

Hadriana and Helena admire and respect one another and have developed a strong friendship. Helena appreciates Hadriana’s trustworthy and forthright manner and sees her as the only person in her court with whom she can confide.

Good

Amadeus

Smug
99%
Plotting
99%
Empathy for the Plight of the Commoners  0%

Senator Gaius Antonio Amadeus “Good Amadeus,” is the head of House Amadeus, the Speaker of the Senate, and Helena’s rival. Amadeus believes the Republic should be lead by the Senate and the people, and he’s always scheming ways to make Helena look bad. Helena feigns friendship with Amadeus, but is well aware of his ill-intentions.

Amadeus runs with Rome’s elites. He’s unapologetically smug and makes no effort to conceal his arrogance. He is married to the much younger Priscilla Amadeus. Together they form the most irritating couple in the Empire.

Medusa

Two-Faced
91%
Charitable
89%
Selfish
29%

Medusa “Maddy” is a prominent mythical creatures’ rights activist. She is engaged in charitable efforts throughout Rome, but her altruistic nature instantly turns to fury if offended. She has the ability to turn men into stone if she chooses to do so.

In her human state, she is elegant, beautiful, and deeply caring, but in her Gorgon state, she’s a terrifying madwoman capable of inflicting mass death and destruction.

She’s involved in a passionate and turbulent on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Professor Centaur.

Old

Senator

Crude
94%
Schmoozer
89%
Party Tricks
77%

Old Senator is the oldest sitting senator in Rome. He is a veteran of the Second Satyr War and is one of only two survivors of the infamous Battle of Goat Ridge. He is influential and respected, but no longer involved in the day-to-day happenings in the Senate, only weighing in on crucial matters. 

Old Senator has always been impressed by Helena. He’s seen many Emperors in his time and believes Helena to be the fairest of them all. He advises her and looks out for her best interests in the Senate.

Old Senator is light-spirited, but crude. He’s a classic schmoozer and heavy wine drinker, well-known for his impressive party tricks

Joe

I’m a comedy writer and voice over artist living in Brooklyn, NY. I started performing stand-up comedy in 2015 and have performed at venues throughout New York City and down the east coast, including Broadway Comedy Club, Dangerfield’s, The West Palm Beach Improv, The Tampa Improv, and The Tupelo in my home state of New Hampshire.

My influences include South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, stand-up comedians Bill Burr and Joe Rogan, and MyPillow CEO Michael J. Lindell (that last one is a joke).

I’m skilled at sound editing and podcast production on Adobe Audition software. I co-produced and co-voiced the now discontinued Dead Jesters Sketch Comedy Podcast, which mocked everything including Tony Robbins, Shark Tank, Richard Branson, and more. It’s still available on iTunes and YouTube, although it should probably be removed from the internet.

Ryco and I met in college, where the foundation of our comedy-writing team started through well timed fart jokes and hilarious dick references. Over the years, those jokes matured to more well-tuned fart jokes and more obscure, yet classy, dick references. We started writing Roads to Rome together in 2017 and it’s been my obsession ever since.   

Oh, I also earned my MBA at the University of Miami, but decided to waste all of that time and money by never utilizing it. Instead, I followed my passion and wrote this cartoon. I hope you enjoy.

Ryco

When I was a kid, my mother snuck me into a George Carlin show at The Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. He opened the show by telling the clapping audience to shut up, then dove right into a vulgar pussy fart joke. Then and there, 12-year-old me fell in love with comedy. I passed out halfway through the show (because I was a child who had no business being there in the first place), but ever since that night I’ve had a passion for entertaining, and for making others laugh.

My mom and dad were influential in the development of my brand of writing and comedy. My father is an author and public speaker; he taught me how to write and perform. My mother is a captivating storyteller from former Yugoslavia, with a filthy sense of humor, and an accent as thick as an elephant’s leg. She taught me how to make people laugh.

After a few years of working a corporate job in Florida I moved to New York City to pursue my comedy dreams. I became a paid writer for TFM and have performed stand-up at a number of storied clubs in the city including Caroline’s on Broadway, Broadway Comedy Club, Dangerfield’s etc.

One night in 2017, Joe called and asked me if I’d be interested in creating an adult cartoon series – I said “not really.” As soon as I woke up the next morning, I called him back. And here we are, these years later, spending our days working on the show we love.

The development of Roads To Rome has been an incredible journey. We’ve had amazing times and small victories, and dark times and losses. Some days I never doubted our idea, other days, all I felt was doubt. But through it all we forged ahead. We poured our hearts and minds into this cartoon, and we hope it shows in our work.