A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within!

In the year 180 A.D., the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who led his Roman legions against the Germanic tribes along the Danube frontier, has been at war for 17 years and lived under very difficult conditions…

Now he invited every governor, every consul and every prince in the whole empire for one particular purpose… All responded to his call coming from the deserts of Egypt, from the mountains of Armenia, from the forest of Gaul and the prairies of Spain…

Action-packed look at the beginnings of the fall of the Roman Empire. Here is the glory, the greed and grandeur that was Rome. Here is the story of personal lust for power, and the shattering effects of that power's loss. Here is the tale of the plight of a people living on the brink of a political abyss.

Directed by: Anthony Mann
Stars: Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness