The Dream of Rome

The Romans created the most successful and longest lasting empire in history. They conquered and civilised a territory that stretched from Scotland to Libya, from Portugal to Iraq - and then ran it for more than 400 years. The dream of Rome has lived on in the memory of European leaders ever since, and one after the other they have tried to imitate the Roman achievement. Charlemagne tried it. Napoleon tried it. Mussolini tried it. And now the European Union can be seen as the latest attempt to rediscover the unity of the Roman empire. So how did the Roman's pull it off?