79-153 Ancient Rome: How Often Should You Think About It?
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
[Note: Students who took and passed 79149 "Ancient Rome: What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?" in Fall 2023 may not enroll.] According to a viral social media trend, many people think about ancient Rome several times every day. How often should you think about it? Would it help you answer that question if you know that you are part Roman? Yes, you. The Romans may seem to be nowhere in our time and world, but they are actually everywhere if you know where to look. Hundreds of years after anyone could plausibly claim to be Roman, the influence of ancient Rome still reverberates in our political institutions, languages, religions, law, geography, art, architecture, science, technology, and so much more. And not just in Europe. The legacy of ancient Rome can be seen in the Americas and elsewhere in the world. It affects how we think about the choice between democracy and autocracy, the costs and benefits of empire, the relations between East and West, the differences between civilization and barbarism, and citizenship and belongingness in a multiethnic society. How did ancient Rome rise and how did it fall? Did it fall at all? How can a people who flourished about two thousand years ago still play a role today? If ancient Rome's impact is still so broad and deep, what lessons can or should we draw from the Romans? This course will explore these questions by tracing the history of Rome from its mythical and historical foundations to its expansion, successive crises and renewals, rediscovery, and (re)interpretations and (ab)uses. At the end of the course, if you decide to think about ancient Rome frequently, you will have the accurate historical knowledge and context to do so meaningfully. This course meets the Dietrich Gen Ed "Contextual Thinking" requirement. PS: None of the content of this course was generated with AI.
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025
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