Granddaughter of bear-loving Emperor Valentinian I, granddaughter of last-of-the-mohicans Count Theodosius, and daughter of Emperor Theodosius who salvaged the Empire after Adrianople, Galla Placidia had the bluest blue running through her veins. One might be tempted to think, that after having been born in this most privileged of positions, she had an easy life? Yet that could not be farther from the truth. Orphaned at the age of 3, besieged in Rome at 16, and kidnapped by the Goths at 17, life threw every conceivable challenge at Galla Placidia and she survived them all, surfing the tumultuous waves of chaos that buffeted the Western Roman Empire in its final days. Our first female heroine candidate earned every last little ounce of the legend surrounding her life.

Just one year after the Emperor Theodosius died in 395AD, Stilicho, his son in law and the man he trusted to carry the Empire forward, is struggling with an impossible situation. The frontiers are overrun by an unholy coaltion of barbarian tribes, pushed inexorably towards Rome by the approaching Hun menace. Meanwhile, Alaric and his Goths, the most powerful military force in the Empire, rampage through the Roman homeland, demanding military honors and a place to settle his people. Over the course of the next decade, Stilicho would accomplish miracles with paltry resources, protecting Italy, while meeting, and defeating a host of enemies that breached the Roman frontier, but none more fearsome than Alaric, who Stilicho defeated in battle time and again. Yet after each defeat, Alaric always seemed to slip away, seeding the rumors that would plague Stilicho the rest of his life. Anti-barbarian sentiment builds. And though half-Vandal Stilicho was born Roman, and devoted his life to serving and protecting the Empire, a plot is hatched to murder the defender of the Western Empire. Once Stilicho is eliminated, there is nothing capable of holding Alaric, King of the Goths in check, and no one capable of protecting the City of Rome, birthplace of empire.

Meet Stilicho, the half Vandal, half Roman soldier who joins Emperor Theodosius' bodyguard in his late teens, catches the eye of the emperor's niece, marries into the imperial family, and rises to the highest military ranks in the Empire! A devoutly loyal and honest man, Stilicho makes a plethora of enemies along the way, but never loses sight of his loyalties, to Emperor and nation. Amongst those enemies are Rufinus the Prefect, Eutropius the Eunuch, and a young Goth warlord who would be king someday, Alaric. This is the origin story of two of the most consequential, and mysterious men in the final chapters of the West.

Born in Trier in 339AD, Ambrose was the privileged son of the praetorian prefect of Gaul. As a young man, he entered the Roman civil service and rose quickly to the role of governor in north Italy during the reign of Emperor Valentinian. Though he was not a Christian and did not seek the honor, Ambrose was elected Bishop of Mediolanum in 374AD, making him one of the most important leaders of the church at a time that the Christian church was infiltrating every facet of the imperial government. He would go on to become the friend, and nemesis, of multiple Roman emperors and usurpers, leaving an indelible stamp on the Church and the State.

Theodosius, son of the legendary Count Theodosius, was thrust into one of the most desperate situations in Rome's history, in the wake of the utter bloodbath at Adrianople in 378AD. Inheriting the mantle of the East, with no army to call upon, and with the Goths rampaging in the Roman heartland, for some reason, Theodosius answered the call, in somehow, he would find a way to put the pieces together again.

Count Theodosius, born in Hispania to a military family, he rose through the ranks and accomplished remarkable things lost in the mists of time. When he emerges into the spotlight he is the Emperor Valentinian's fixer, who recovers Britannia, settles the Rhine, and recovers Africa for the Empire without breaking a sweat, with humility and grace. But no good deed ever goes unpunished, and so it is with Theodosius, but that cannot prevent him from founding one of Rome's great dynasties.

Valentinian, son of the Rope Man, emerged from dad's shadow, paid his dues in the army, and was in the right place at the right time when Julian's short-lived successor Jovian died somewhere outside Ancyra. Rising to the purple with his brother Valens (Adrianople anyone?) by his side, Valentinian would go on to rule from the west, holding the Rhine, recovering Britannia, and quashing rebelling in Africaa. He would be the last truly dominant Roman Emperor to rule the West, with the help of two savage she-bears, but was he a hero?

Julian, nephew of Constantine the Great, cousin of Constantius the Murderous, aspiring philosopher, Emperor almost against his will, unfortunate soul! He would be the last pagan emperor of Rome, though the Empire would last for another 1100 years, trying in vain to turn back to the clock to a simpler world that no longer existed.