This is a CBSI in the world. I'm John Bachelor of Professor Frank

Frankupan, Peter Frankupan, Oxford and Worcester College professor of global history.

We're now in the Roman warm period which is a delight because I've done so much of my reading

most recently about all of the Game of Thrones played around Rome and

throughout the Mediterranean world and now to discover it again as reacting to

and dealing with and getting lucky about climate is a joy.

Peter, you've already mentioned Cleopatra who steals the scenes, but the Romans have an important

philosophical approach to

ecology, to nature. They want to live in harmony with it at the same time

they want to take advantage of it to spread their empire.

The Romans from what you present, Peter, looked to be lucky.

Is that too much to take away from their achievements?

They were at the right place at the right time

in the right part of the world with the Mediterranean

as their road to build the empire.

And yet at the same time, the climate was not disruptive at least it wasn't

an un disorderly as it could have been in other periods.

I think you could you could widen that John if we if we had a long time with a glass of wine you know I'd maybe say that all

empires need to be lucky or all empires need to need to get institutions right they need to get justice systems right and they need to get institutions right, they need to get justice systems right and they need to get

forms of equality right to be stable because otherwise they topple over. So Rome did lots of things that were to do with skill of good administration and good institutions.

But all empires are extractive.

Their aim is to widen the peripheries and to not just go and colonizing and conquer space for the sake of it, but to conquer space that is

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