What Do We Mean When We Talk About Ancient Rome?

About the Topic

Edgar Allan Poe evoked “the glory that was Greece” and “the grandeur that was Rome.”

In the eighth century BCE, the Greeks emerged from the Dark Ages reading Homer and the Theogony, beginning a pursuit of beauty and philosophical inquiry.

While Greek thought sought to hold time still, across the Adriatic the Romans settled among seven hills by the Tiber and began their expansion across the Mediterranean, carrying Latin civilization with them.

The Romans pursued permanence through empire and honored their gods.

Following our journey to ancient Greece, we now begin with Romulus and the founding of Rome.

We will trace how a settlement of seventy-two square kilometers grew into an empire surrounding the Mediterranean; how the periods of Caesar, Augustus, and the Five Good Emperors gave way to a changing relationship between imperial and Christian authority; and how Rome declined under pressure from Germanic peoples.

Roman history seems to contain almost every form and experience available to a state, including its eventual decline.

Looking at Rome’s republican spirit, imperial figures, civilization, architecture, and religious life through a classical lens can prompt reflection on our own society and culture, and on our moral commitments.

Imagine looking over the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill, the ruined Colosseum catching the evening light. The Eternal City gives visible form to our powerlessness before time.

The ruins become more than broken walls or places checked off from a social media list: they become witnesses to more than two thousand years of change.

On Friday evening, let’s leave the everyday world for a while and visit the Italian peninsula.