Barbarians

Their name has become synonymous with lawless destruction. Ranging far from their roots in Germany, these power-hungry pagans swept through Spain, then across North Africa, and eventually to the gates of Rome itself. Through sneak attacks and cunning tactics--including the largest-ever sea-borne movement of barbarian peoples--they succeeded in facing down the awesome military might of the Roman Empire, leaving a trail of looting and terror in their wake.

Wielding the mighty battle-axe and the deadly long knife known as the sax--from whence they derive their name--this Germanic tribe was considered especially warlike and ferocious. The island of Britain was ripe for conquest, and the opportunistic Saxons took full advantage. Watch them ravage the British coast, destroy Roman defenses and plunder monasteries in an orgy of pagan worship, then turn to confront their barbarian brothers in a bloody battle for power and land.

Witness the birth of a barbarian empire as the Franks, led by Merovich--the legendary warrior said to be half-man, half-monster--descend upon Gaul, cutting a swath of devastation and conquering both the Roman and Visigoth armies. Merovich's grandson Clovis wins his supremacy through treachery and murder, choosing to renounce his pagan ways only when it seems that the Christian god grants him greater success on the battlefield.

Explore the primal pagan rites of the Lombards as they vie for supremacy on the crowded Italian peninsula, fending off both Roman and Frankish attacks. In the war of tribe against tribe, where the Lombards sever the heads and steal the women of their defeated foes, we travel with the brutal Lombard leader, Alboin, as he breaks through the Roman defenses, surrounds The Eternal City, and forces a captured foe's wife to drink from her slain father's skull.