Roman Empire: The Roman Empire, at its height, stretches from modern Iraq to Scotland. The concept of such a superstate has never lost its hold of the western imagination; the modern European union could be described as a subconscious attempt to recreate a lost ideal.

Modern Day:

Latin imperial culture changed the linguistic and cultural face of Europe, providing a bedrock for the development of western culture, whatever way individual societies built on it. Today, former colonial peoples in Africa and the Indian sub-continent have embraced much of the literary and cultural heritage of the former imperial powers and have adapted and transmuted it even as Europeans earlier treated the culture bequeathed them by the Roman empire.

Roman World: Lucan's world is dominated by the figure of an absolute ruler, whose actions can be curbed only by his own moral sense or assassination. In...