<em>The correct answer is</em> <em>B. At its height, the empire comprised nearly 1.7 million square miles of land and water.</em>
The most important difficult to defend the Roman empire against invasion were the extension of its territory and its frontier.
Other aspects were positives because a great population allowed to have a bigger army, the paved roads helped to the faster communication and sending of troops, and the extension of the Mediterranean Sea functioned as a natural barrier, even more if we consider that the Roman navy was much more superior than their enemies.
The Barbarian Germanic tribes made a big pressure around the Northern and West Northern Limes (Frontier in Latin Language), so they had to send a great number of soldiers to protect the Empire against them.
Finally, when the empire was in a week situation, it was destroyed by the invasion of those people.