The Fall of the Roman Empire

In the year 180 AD, the ailing Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness) fights to keep Germanic tribes from invading his northern territories on the Danube frontier, while he must make a crucial decision about his successor between his son Commodus (Christopher Plummer), who is obsessed with power, and the loyal general Gaius Livius (Stephen Boyd). The emperor privately holds egalitarian ideals, disqualifying Commodus as a candidate, and instead favors Livius, his childhood friend and the lover of the emperor's daughter Lucilla (Sophia Loren).