The Roman Empire, founded by Augustus Caesar in 27 B.C. and lasting in Western Europe for 500 years, reorganized for world politics and economics. Almost the entirety of the civilized world became a single centralized state. In place of Greek democracy, piety, and independence came Roman authoritarianism and practicality. Vast prosperity resulted. Europe and the Mediterranean bloomed with trading cities ten times the size of their predecessors with public amenities previously unheard of courts, theaters, circuses, …showed first 75 words of 954 total…

…showed last 75 words of 954 total…in certain cases, for example, in the tomb church in Rome of Constantine's daughter, Santa Costanza, of about 350. In the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, erected in 526-547, this was expanded to the scale of a middle-sized church. Here a domed octagon 60 feet (18 meters) across is surrounded by a corridor, or aisle, and balcony 30 feet (9 meters) deep. On each side a semicircular projection from the central space pushes outward to blend these spaces together.