King Arthur

by Christopher Hibbert

The Roman Empire was disintegrating. For years, Rome had been defending its frontiers, which stretched some 10,000 miles, from the North Sea along the Rhine to the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea; and from Constantinople to the Strait of Gibraltar, then northward through Spain and Gaul to Britain. But the once-civilized and disciplined Roman way of life had become decadent. Rome’s emperors were merely puppets in the hands of their generals, who frequently assassinated them and took their places on the throne. The administration that had enabled the Roman government to keep control of an unwieldy conglomeration of nations and provinces had degenerated into a bureaucracy riddled with corruption. Trade declined as taxes increased. The Roman army, once noted for its legions of well-equipped soldiers, now consisted of troops of mercenaries, hired to defend the empire against steadily increasing pressure from other forces - Goths, Huns, Saxons, Vandals - moving southward and westward from Scandinavia, the lands around the Baltic, and the Russian steppes.