Ancient Rome and Its Legacies

From a few huts on seven hills in the 8th century BCE, Rome grew into an empire spanning Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Black Sea.

Over a millennium, it evolved from a modest city-state into a vast power whose influence on law, architecture, literature, and political thought continues to shape the modern world.

This course focuses on the tumultuous late Republic and the early empire while also tracing how Rome endured in cultural memory long after its political power had faded.

Its achievements come into focus through examining iconic works: the Ara Pacis, the engineering marvel of the vast network of Roman roads, the legal traditions that underpin modern civil law, and literary masterpieces such as Virgil’s Aeneid and Tacitus’s Germania .

Through close readings and discussion, students follow Rome’s transformation from republic to empire, explore how Romans understood themselves and the peoples they governed, and consider why Roman ideas, ambitions, and institutions still echo through the modern world.