Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City

Explore ancient Rome through a unique, historically accurate 3D model.

Take a guided tour around ancient Rome with expert Professor Matthew Nicholls, using his detailed and award-winning 3D digital model of the city. Explore Rome’s architecture and how it was used - how did Romans worship their gods and meet their political masters? How was drinking water supplied to the city’s million inhabitants? Moving seamlessly between footage of contemporary Rome and the digital model (including interactive elements), you’ll explore these questions and much more.

Use this insight to inform your own encounters with the eternal city and the study of ancient history more generally.

This course is open to anyone with an interest in discovering more about ancient Rome. You might be: planning a visit to the Italian capital; an avid watcher of documentaries on Roman history; or considering studying archaeology, classics or history at university.

• Location and infrastructure
• Welcome to Rome: A virtual tour of the ancient city
• Part I: Building the ancient city
• Encountering the evidence
• Part II: Walls, roads and building materials
• Part III: Aqueducts and sewers
• Review and reflect
• Political architecture
• Welcome to Week 2
• Part IV: The Forum
• Part V: Monuments and the imperial fora
• Texts in the city
• Review and reflect
• Religious architecture
• Part VI: Roman religion and republican temples
• Encountering the evidence: music and coins
• Part VII: imperial temples
• Worshipping the gods
• Review and reflect
• Life and death in ancient rome
• Part VIII: Life
• Encountering the evidence: the baker's tomb and Roman food
• Part IX: Death
• Review and reflect
• Bread and circuses
• Part X: Bread and Circuses
• Part XI: Theatres
• Part XII: Baths
• Part XIII: Colosseum
• Encountering the evidence: the Colosseum and entertainment venues at Rome
• Review and reflect