Barbarian Invasions

 Barbarians.

You trembling yet?

Romans feared the very word itself - imagine how much they feared the real thing.

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Barbarians were one of the most feared components of the Roman empire - they weren't even a true part of the empire itself. They were considered filthy, grimy immigrants with the brains of mice, and yet, despite their dim reputation and constant degrading from others, Rome oddly still feared them.
And for all the right reasons, too.

There were, of course, dozens of different 'forms' per se of barbarians, and from all across the globe; there were some from Germany, which definitely caused the most problems. Others migrated from rural areas of Europe. But it really didn't matter where they came from - they were all practically the same. They all shared the same general rage, general hate, general bloodthirst. Rome, still DESPITE the fact that they knew just what it was they were dealing with, swept them all off, and underestimated them. They had a thin amount of time before they would finally understand the immense power they had dismissed.

 The barbarians didn't necessarily start attacking just yet; they came in gradually. Slowly. Painfully. Then all at once, in a mass of death and the reeking scent of murder and decay, the barbarians invaded and completely and utterly crushed the borders of the Roman empire, stampeding through their walls of so-called defense like a hoarde of ticked-off buffalo, reading to destroy and trample anything and everything in their path.