OSHER 463 - Roman Art, Culture, and Life

Twenty-eight centuries ago, a small group of huts was built on the Tiber River. Over the course of time, this small village became Rome, the capital city of an empire the size of the United States. Dozens of diverse cultures from present-day Istanbul to London were under the rule of a single mighty power. Roman characters such as Cicero, Julius and Augustus Caesar, and Constantine still teach us today, while our law, infrastructure and lifestyles bear the mark of Roman influence. We will see this unique, sophisticated, and quarrelsome empire, its costumes and different styles, and how Romans spread a style all over the Western world.