Excalibur and the last stand
The Last Legion is an unusual film. It deals with the late Roman Empire and the nominal last emperor of the West, the juvenile Romulus Augustulus. The 1964 epic The Fall of the Roman Empire and the similar Gladiator both follow the eighteenth century historian Edward Gibbon in seeing the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD as marking the final decline of Rome. Yet the Empire survived for another three centuries, divided between east and west and engaged in a constant struggle to defend its borders. By the late fifth century, the Western Empire had been reduced to Italy and a foothold in...