Third century from the birth of Christ. The Great Roman Empire on the eve of great upheavals. Another century or so and it will collapse under the blows of the barbarians. But when the first of the "soldier" emperors, the semi-barbarian Maximinus the Thracian, dons royal purple, Rome is still a Great Empire. Terrible and powerful...Continuation of the novel “Barbarians”. The real story of the decline of the Great State. The eve of the death of Eternal Rome - through the eyes of two of our contemporaries, one of whom became the leader of the ferocious barbarians, and the second donned the armor of a Roman legionnaire and stood under the standards of the Roman Empire crowned with silver eagles.