Traveling from Spain to Israel, Algeria to Britain, Germany to Turkey, historian Mary Beard answers the big questions that have fascinated people for centuries. How did a small city, Rome, acquire an empire? And why did it fall? Mary examines its creation, successes, failures and the legacy, not just in its technology and buildings, its roads and laws, but also in the worlds that came after it.

Traveling from Spain to Israel, Algeria to Britain, Germany to Turkey, historian Mary Beard answers the big questions that have fascinated people for centuries. How did a small city, Rome, acquire an empire? And why did it fall? Mary examines its creation, successes, failures and the legacy, not just in its technology and buildings, its roads and laws, but also in the worlds that came after it.