Making and Unmaking the World: Ancient Empires and Their Aftermath

The Romans built a world of their own: they constructed infrastructure that spanned the empire, built cities, roads, aqueducts, and monuments, and even reshaped the natural environment itself -- often at great cost. By looking at the impact of such imperial projects on the built environment and the natural world, this course highlights the costs of building ancient civilizations and the aftermaths they left behind. We will learn about how these features were built, what they became after the empire’s fall, and how they changed the world for better... or worse.