400 AD: Among the splendours of his palace at Eboricum (York), Tiberius Claudius the Roman British governor the Province broods on what he believes to be the end of the civilised world The alarm and disunity of his political and military advisers influence his own indecision. The threat of barbaric invasion and its subsequent violent outbursts throughout the Empire are too much for the Imperial authority of Rome to contain. For Claudius the threat becomes a reality at a banquet to which a captive Saxon war leader is brought for diversion.