the imperial city of rome, a.d. 200.with a population approaching half a million it was the center of the western world. rome's immense wealth flowed from a vast empire along the mediterranean sea. an amazingariety of goods came to rome by ship from spain, france, asia minor north africa and egypt. transportation expert ross hassig. it was closer is terms of the cost of transportation to get to egypt than it was to get a hundred miles inland in italy. you couldn't bring food from a hundred miles inland to rome because even with carts, even with oxen it simply cost too much. so rome was able to tap into the production of other areas because it was able to use ships where the cost of transportation was extremely low. keach: but roman seagoing merchant ships carrying upwards of a thousand tons were too large to navigate the tiber river, so cargos were unloaded onto smaller vessels downriver at the port city of ostia. ostia was once a bustling commercial city with shops and restaurants... villas and apartment houses for merc

it all is here in the imperial city.there is a construction crane on every block in washington because washington takes care of its own. you sit on the phone for 30 minutes waiting for someone who has total contempt for you to get on and give you an answer you don't understand if you are a taxpayer. meanwhile if you actually work for the tax collection agency you are getting 130 grand in bonuses for shafting taxpayers. >> if i were the irs commissioner, i would be screaming from the roof tops about what -- it's like, you know screaming. and the former irs commissioner that recommended that she get a bonus, lois lerner said she has had significant involvement in the highly sensitive political activity compliance initiative. her expertise greatly influenced the design and implenty mentation of the initiative giving her great praise. >> which they never do. even people coming to washington with the intention of reforming it get caught up in a cycle. it's always the same. the second you take over a federal agency you feel li

what is the top priority for an imperial official in someplace like madrid. or mexico city or lima? protect the minds of places like mexico and peru. -- mines of places like mexico and peru. other lucrative mines? that's later on. not in the 17th century and 18th century. if you think about the spanish empire, it is enormous. it extends down to the southern portions of south america, peru, bolivia, chile. this fringe we are talking about is a long way from the center of the empire and it tends not to be the priority. in that sense it's not that , surprising that it takes a while for the spanish to begin launching these forays into the planes. there are other ways they can allocate their resources. if you recall, for example the coronado expedition onto the planesains back in 16th century -- we did not talk about that much -- you recall how this went? not great. the spanish went out there and discovered thousands of pretty formidable plains indians who were not necessarily going to welcome the spanish onto the plains. they found the plains were an area of meager rewards and significa

the roads are laid out similar to imperial france and at the same time of and everything the you can imagine a modern lovely city would have. with this is never realized that it creates a pretty good defect. and la fonda is fired not soon after i got all the wrong people snorers. en then through 1800 to 18 '02 the city becomes the capital of the united states and congress to organize the constituent parts of the city of the district over the next year it is five components the district of columbia which is led capital's washington city so basic basically everything south of florida avenue beyond that what was formerly maryland washington county and georgetown. un the virginia side of the river on alexandria county. there is local government and they cannot vote for national leaders but they can vote for the local leaders. but the problem is with the city starts developing it turns out there are few stipulations that are not exactly friendly to local government and one is taxation so they have to tax everything else which is a small merchant or struggling homeowner. because of the lack of funding government is fo