Waiting for the Barbarians

In a city - evoking, without specificity, a city of the Roman Empire - the poem depicts a state of waiting: the arrival of the ‘Barbarians’ has been announced, the emperor himself seems ready to submit to their authority, and every hypothesis about the future is possible. The city holds its breath in anticipation… But who, exactly, are these ‘Barbarians’? And what if they do not come?