How and why did ancient Romans use myth to validate their power? Emperor Augustus legitimised his rule by entwining his own ancestry with the mythical stories of Rome's foundation, and created a divine aura around Rome as capital of the vast empire. This album visits key emblems associated with Rome's beginnings: the Forum and the Capitoline Hill with its statue of the she-wolf and Romulus and Remus; the Emperor Augustus's palace and ceremonial altar, and the 17th Century D'Arpino frescos of foundation myths commissioned by Pope Innocent X to underpin his authority. By monumentalising and glorifying their real and legendary past, Romans painted their own history and this continues to encapsulate Roman identity today. This material forms part of The Open University course A330 Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds.

The splendidly evocative ruins of ancient Rome have long been a challenge to historians and archaeologists in reconstructing how it looked and functioned. It became the largest city in the western world during the imperial period, so how was the city constructed, and what were the materials used? How was it defended, supplied with food and water, and how were the people housed and entertained, and above all, how did it function? These video tracks use various famous sites such as the Baths of Caracalla and the Pantheon to answer some of these questions. This material forms part of the course AT308 Cities and technology: from Babylon to Singapore.

Historians have argued that the Church saw dissection as a desecration of God's creation. But Katherine Park has found evidence of numerous dissections.

This free course, Continuing classical Latin, gives you the opportunity to hear a discussion of the development of the Latin language.