Less "explain" than "describe," but some fine maps nonetheless from various sources. The impact of the Roman Empire on Europe, even today, would be hard to overstate.
40 maps that explain the Roman Empire
2000 years ago today, the Roman Emperor Augustus died. His reign marked the start of a 200-year period of peace and prosperity for the empire.
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Cool link.
I've always found the correlation between ancient roman borders and our current political/cultural borders. The religions and political ideologies have radically changed or even been invented in the interim and yet the borders remain the same. Like that little portion of Ireland north of Hadrian's Wall, it just happens to haunt us to this day. And the Eastern/Western European division…interesting. It's almost as if the hammer blow of Roman violence and occupation was a 'domesticating' force that humanity is still resonating from.