Book excerpt: 494 AD. - Almost twenty years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula are now part of the vast kingdom of the Visigoths. Their ruler himself, Alaric II son of the famous Euricus, reigns with an iron fist over a population as submissive as it is heterogeneous, consisting indeed of barbarians but also by Romans now devoid of pride and patriotism. But despite his reprisals and his continual oppressive taxation, one of the surviving Romans of Hispania will find within himself the strength to rekindle the ancient fire that enabled his ancestors to found and make the empire great. To his surprise, Claudius Aemilius Iberus, known as Burdunellus, will succeed in making his personal cause that of all the people of Hispania, severely threatening Alaric's throne and sparking one of the last, fierce but also least-told rebellions of the post-imperial age.