Prologue : Origins : Part 1. West Asia and the eastern Mediterranean : 1.1. The Fertile Crescent and the Nile valley : Sumer ; The Old Kingdom of Egypt ; Mesopotamian empires ; Theban kingdoms of the Nile -- 1.2. The Aegean, Anatolia and the Aryans : Minoans and Achaeans -- 1.3. Issues from a dark age : Levant ; Sebea ; World empire -- Part 2. Pre-Columbian America : 2.1. Mesoamerica : The pre-classic era of the Olmecs ; Classic achievement ; The post-classic world of the Toltecs and Aztecs -- 2.2. The Andean littoral -- Part 3. The Classical world : 3.1. Hellenic order : The ordering of architecture ; Doric from archaic to classical ; Periklean apogee ; Planning and technology ; Polis in crisis -- 3.2. Macedonians and the East : Late-classical planning and defence -- 3.3. Republican Rome and its mentors : Etruscan legacy ; Hellenization and engineering -- 3.4. Augustan Rome and its empire : Augustan Rome and Vitruvius ; Form and imperial style ; Mass and imperial space -- Part 4. Christianity and empire : 4.1 Rome and new Romes : Constantinian building ; Division and late-imperial Rome ; Early imperial Byzantium and diversity ; Beyond the pale: Ethiopia -- 4.2. Justinian and the apotheosis of Byzantium : Consolidation and standardization in the East -- Epilogue: the last half millennium of Byzantium.