Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit

Mary Beard ventures on an enthralling journey, travelling from Spain to Iran, Egypt to Scotland, and Tunisia to Greece, to answer some of the most fascinating questions about Ancient Rome. She examines its creation, its successes, its failures and legacy left behind - not just its technology and buildings, its roads and laws – but also in the realms that followed it. No series before has looked at the empire as a whole with such epic scope. Moving from the ancient to the modern, from the big battles and big names of Roman history and on to the stories of the little people who made it work, many of whom have left their own imprints alongside the Caesars, Hadrians and Constantine the Greats. Ultimately, the series tackles the biggest puzzles of all - neither of which have a definitive answer: why did Rome acquire such a vast empire? And why did it fall? (Viasat)