Googlus mapus for ancient Rome

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to ancient Rome! You've seen it on the History Channel, and now you, too, can fly through the eerily abandoned streets of a clearly computer-generated Ancient Rome thanks to Google Earth: earth.google.com/rome

In conjunction with Rome Reborn, the folks at Google Earth have recreated a 3-D map of ancient Rome more or less how it appeared in the year 320 AD. Coolest bit: you can even fly into some of the buildings, like the Basilica Giulia law courts in the Roman Forum.

(Note this is not one of those things you can just see on Google's site using your Web browser; you have to download the separate Google Earth application--which if you don't already have, is amazingly cool and free. It's what the Evening News and CNN and such now use to zoom in on trouble spots in the news).