The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire, although largely a product of warfare, lasted for half a millennium. In many ways it still survives, imbedded in present institutions, explicitly addressed in contemporary architecture and constantly reemerging in literature, cinema and most recently, in computer games. The present course primarily focuses how this big empire came into being and how come that it lasted for so long. We will make acquaintance with the City, the Italian core land and the provinces in an attempt to answer series of questions about the nature of this empire. How far was life in the provinces aligned on the model of the City? What purpose did monumentalisation fulfill? What did it mean to be Roman? What do we know about the economic and social basis of this empire? How much did this empire differ from other contemporary constructs, such as China and Parthia?