Can You Protect In the 3rd century, when Rome dominated Europe,
it was able to deploy 50 legions throughout the empire, securing
even the furthermost areas. By the following century the empire
had lost much of its muscle, however, and Rome's forces had
diminished to just 25 legions. Emperor Constantine's problem:
How to station legions in sufficient strength to protect the
most forward positions of the empire without abandoning the core
--namely Rome. He devised a new defensive strategy to cope with
Rome's reduced power. The problem is not "solved" in a
mathematical sense, but a set of rules exists that defines when
a solution is acceptable. Once you understand the rules, you can
attempt to see if you can improve on Constantine's choice of
deployment. A region, then, may be thought of as either secured
or securable. It is considered to be secured if it has one or
more pebbles placed in it already. It is considered securable if
a pebble can be deployed to that region in a single step. At any
shift or movement f