Fourteen deaths driven by hatred and revenge underscore Shakespeare’s bloodiest fictional story about the real-life barbarism that undid the Roman Empire. Titus Andronicus, a Roman general, returns home with the Gothic queen Tamora and her children in chains. The people name Titus as emperor, but he places the late emperor’s eldest son on the throne. In the new emperor Tamora finds new power, and uses it to perpetuate a cycle of bloodshed quickly spinning out of control.