This 5 minute video from National Geographic provides an introduction into Ancient Rome.

Episode 3 Description: Huge engineering projects help spark intricate cities that transform the lives of millions of people. The spread of Christianity and other religions reveals the increasing interconnectedness of mankind. The greatest mega-city on earth, Rome, becomes an engine of expansion while China builds an empire on the other side of the world. A vast network of roads and shipping lanes allows goods and ideas to flow across three continents. Mankind is connected like never before—this is the birth of globalization

Episode description: Byzantium rose to power after the fall of the Roman Empire. Also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, the capital city of Constantinople was founded in 330, and continued on the traditions and engineering greatness of Rome. Its wall was the most impenetrable fortifications that the world had seen. While them empire managed to conquer much of the land lost by the western empire, the empire went through many periods of turmoil. During the times the empire would gain and lose much of its territories until Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.