The Emperor Trajan is most often remembered for expanding the territory of Rome to its greatest extent. He led successful campaigns against Dacia and Parthia and other states that expanded Roman territory further east. Trajan is also remembered for his extensive program of social welfare that earned him a reputation as one of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire.

Foreign expansion increased the wealth of aristocrats through foreign looting. Expansion also increased slave labor and therefore reduced the demand for peasant labor and this shifted the poor increasingly into military service where they were needed for further foreign expansion. The increasing wealth of aristocrats and the falling demand for peasant labor contributed to increasing inequality. 

Gaul has named for the tribes that traversed it, both before and after it fell under Roman rule. Fierce and proud, the Gallic tribes were one of Rome's most fearsome adversaries throughout the entirety of Roman history. It was renamed France after the Franks, a tribe that came to dominate the region around the fall of the Empire.

The Eastern Roman Empire was comprised of all of the following modern-day countries except Algeria. Most of North Africa, the Iberian peninsula, modern-day France and Britain, and the Italian peninsula were part of the Western Roman Empire; Modern-day Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and the near Middle East were all part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The territory of the Roman Empire was most extensive in the second century CE This period of time coincides with the rule of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire - Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. These emperors were so-named for their string of successful military conquests and the relative peace and prosperity that prevailed over territory within the Roman Empire during this time.

Ashoka the Great was a ruler of the Mauryan Dynasty. Ashoka ruled over the vast majority of the Indian subcontinent (including parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) from approximately 270 to 230 BCE Ashoka is famous for his military conquests, but he is also famous for his religious tolerance which emerged during the later years of his reign. He was famously appalled by the loss of life during one of his conquests and embraced many aspects of Buddhism as a result.

The Fall of the Roman Empire took place in the fifth century. First, the Visigoths sacked the city in 410 CE and then the Vandals sacked the city in 445 CE The Byzantine Empire survived until 1453, approximately a millennium later, when it was conquered by the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Mehmed II.

After the Han conquest, Vietnam adopted several important aspects of the Chinese cultural and political system, including recruiting bureaucrats via examinations, Chinese-style schools and Chinese military organization. Technology such as cropping techniques and irrigation were also introduced. The dominant cultural system in China at the time that also influenced Vietnam was Confucianism, which advocates reverence for all ancestors in an extended family, rather than exalting the nuclear family (only parents and their children).

Alexandria was named for the conqueror leading Greece at the time, Alexander the Great, who defeated the ruling Persians in 332 BC after conquering Syria, and before moving on to Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He established the Ptolemiac Dynasty, which ruled Egypt with Alexandria as its capitol.

The Frankish Empire was founded in 496 CE by Clovis I. It emerged shortly after the downfall of the Roman Empire and filled the power vacuum in Western Europe throughout the early Medieval period.