At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the north of Britain to the desert of Egypt. Emperors were cruel and bent on conquering. Art and architecture flourished, but math and science did not. The idea of the empire began with Julius Caesar, who was killed because he was ruling the government by himself. His adopted son, Octavian, became the first emperor, calling himself Augustus Caesar. The Roman Empire split into two parts, East and …showed first 75 words of 697 total…

…showed last 75 words of 697 total…modern Western civilization and which could possibly lead to the end of the centuries in which Western civilization has been able to expand and to dominate the globe. Much our of high standard of living has been a result of our ability to take what we wanted from the rest of the world, as the Romans did, and the loss of that ability would mean that our lives would become significantly less comfortable and luxurious.