Читать книгу World History For Dummies - Peter Haugen - Страница 82

IN THIS CHAPTER

Tracing the life cycle of the Roman Empire(s)

Bringing states together in a united Indian empire

Uniting and organizing China

Establishing the Maya and other empires in the Americas

The Roman city-state’s origins are obscure and lost to history, if not to legend. But the history of Rome as it grew into one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen is anything but obscure. Even in 20 books this size, I probably wouldn’t be able to fit in everything that’s known about the Roman Empire and its people — let alone its pervasive legacy.

In this chapter, you’ll follow the way Rome grew from a city-state ruled by a king to a republic to a vast empire and how that empire eventually deteriorated into a divided, crumbling political ruin. And you can find out about how Rome left such a history and a lasting mark on the world that sometimes, it almost seems that the Roman Empire was the only great empire of the final century BC and the early centuries AD. But you’ll also encounter other powerful empires that rose and fell in the Middle East, Asia, and in the Americas, far away and isolated from the Roman sphere. Imperial expansion dominated much of the world.