Rome

The city Rome (the Romans referred to their state as Senatus Populusque Romanus) was founded either on April 21, 751 BC or at some other time by Romulus, an illegitimate son of the god Mars and (as was later discovered) a descendant of the goddess Venus. How about some nice maps?

The Romans' rise from their humble origins is as fascinating as the extent of their empire. Just how did the proverbial Podunk on the Tiber grow into an entity which maintained hegemony over the Mediterranean world for centuries? The Romans themselves would credit their contractual relationship with their gods (Pax Deorum), their adherence to the ways of their elders (Mos Maiorum), and the sense of manifest destiny best expressed in The Speech Of Anchises from Vergils Aeneid.

• In ROM Lecture 1 our topic will have been the growth of an itty bitty village into the world power we know as the SPQR.
  
• In ROM Lecture 2 (once I was allowed to start lecturing) I talked about how Roman society was the Roman family, writ large.
• In ROM Lecture 3 I was delighted by the opportunity to make a few remarks about Roman empire and/or Roman non-empire.
• In ROM Lecture 4 I had the honor of addressing the peculiarly bloody pastime known as ancient Roman politics.
• In ROM Lecture 5 I riffed upon the importance of that good old time Roman religion and we ended class with a knockout rendition of the rousing Hymn Of The Arval Brethren.
• In ROM Lecture 6, dis volentibus, we will examine the end of the Roman Republic as they knew it. And I'll feel fine.
• In Rom Lecture 7, without benefit of lecture notes, I wung the Julio-Claudians, Flavians, and Antonines, and even managed to adumbrate the Crisis of the Third Century AD.
• In ROM Lecture 8, the series comes to an end with my stunning rendition of the Crisis (what crisis?), Dominate, the Age of Constantine, and finally the so-called "Fall."