Throughout the lectures Professor Zissos, one of my Humanities Core professors, gave about the Roman Empire, I’ve grown to admire the ancient civilization and its astounding achievements. The vast Roman Empire, with the Mediterranean in the middle of it, compared to the contemporary United States. This vast ancient civilization renowned for its remarkable army-the foundation upon which the whole empire rested-was one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world that helped shape western culture, religion, language, and politics for centuries. Contiguous territories that stretched from Britain in the Northwest to Egypt in the Southeast made up the Roman Empire, one of the largest empires in world history.