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
Marcus Aurelius greets them as friends, and tells them that in the whole world, only two small frontiers are still hostile to Rome
One, here in the north which separates the Roman Empire from those who are called barbarians, the other, in the east of Persia
Only on these two borders Rome is finding walls, palisades, forts and hatred
But these are not the frontiers he wants
He wants and needs human frontiers, the vision of a family of nations
For the great emperor time is short, and there is a decision which he can no longer delay
He has sacrificed the love of his son as Commodus will never be his heir
His wish is that Livius, the commander of the northern army, should succeed him, and he intends to present him to the leaders of the empire openly as his successor... He has hope that the position and responsibilities would make his son grow up as Commodus is interested only in games and gladiators...
Guiness' ailing Marcus Aurelius had hope that his daughter would not have a marriage without love
And he knows better than anyone what a marriage without love can mean
But his fears for the empire are reasonable
The east is where the danger lies
He must make an alliance that will show the whole world what value Rome place on her eastern frontier
An alliance with Armenia
Boyd's weary Galius Livius saw suddenly his world has become strange
He's not sure where he is
He knows only the ways of war
He would not know how to make allies out of the barbarians
But if he has to choose between being Caesar's heir or Lucilla's love, he chooses her love
Loren's lovely Lucilla makes it hard for her father to take leave of this life
She knows that her father loves her, but how could her life mean anything without love? It is out of love that she dared so much
Plummer's slimy Commodus pushes the eastern provinces to rebellion in smashing and destroying everything his father did
He makes it clear to his sister that he refused to give her anymore chances to prop against him
Mason's genteel Timonides has been a slave, but he's not accustomed to pain
He is a philosopher and he is weak
Ferrer's treacherous Cleander knows that Caesar will accept fruit from him
He also knows that his blade carries a deadly poison
Quayle's gladiator Verulus snores, in the moment of truth, a deep family secret
Sharif's king Sohamus hopes for a lovely part of Rome
With a cast of thousands, massive battle sequences, exciting chariot races, brutal hand to hand combat, gorgeous scenery, impressive set design, Anthony Mann's motion picture is a long ride of epic proportions not designed only to entertain but to expose how gold and corruption can undermine the biggest empire the world has ever known
