By the late fourth century, Goths and Romans share the empire uneasily, and Emperor Theodosius resolves the tension by putting Gothic warriors into Roman service under his general Stilicho, a man of half-Vandal, half-Roman blood. Theodosius then spends those Gothic troops as expendable infantry in a civil war, and the survivors rebel behind a new leader, Alaric, whom they call king. When Theodosius dies, he splits the empire between his two young sons and names Stilicho regent in the west, setting up a decades-long entanglement between the regent and the Gothic king. Alaric wants land and standing for his people inside Roman borders; Stilicho is tasked with holding that same border against every other threat pressing on it. Their relationship shifts from alliance to open war and back again, reenacted with Roman military camps, Gothic settlements, and court intrigue standing in for the historical record. Episode 11 of the series ends with both men destroyed by Roman suspicion of outsiders, and the Goths turning on Rome itself.