The Yale series on the early middle ages has some good info in the first six or seven lectures[1] My favorite relevant tidbit is that Roman North Africa was the major supplier of grain to Italy, at least in the 4th and 5th centuries, when disruptions in North Africa could cause famines in the city of Rome. When the Vandals in Spain were looking around for another juicy piece of the Roman empire to settle in, they (supposedly) wrangled themselves an invitation from the Roman governor of North Africa, whom they promptly betrayed and defeated. They consolidated control of North Africa and held it for almost a century until Justinian, ruling from Byzantium, took Africa back for the empire. At that point, North Africa was a much more important region than Italy was, and many historians argue that Justinian's reconquest of Italy from the Goths immediately afterwards was a waste of time.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC8JcWVRFp8&list=PL77A337915...

I’d definitely start with Ancient Greece as it preceded Romans and Romans had to wage war agains Greek states in the beginning to become the real deal. Perhaps even start with Alexander the Great and his conquest.

I would then look into Carthaginian wars, famous general Hannibal and his fate. This was a crucial period when Rome was competing with Carthage for the top spot and at times it looked quite dire for Rome as Carthage had an upper hand.

Next interesting period would be Julius Ceazar and especially what happened after his death when his generals were battling to inherit his empire which eventually led to the split into eastern and western Romans. This split later continued when Christianity became mainstream religion and lead to Byzantine Empire.

You can look into the sack of Constantinople and wonder what would happen if Western Christians didn’t sack and destroy Eastern Christians allowing Islam to take over the region.

And then we come to the German rise as German lands become the heart of the indirect continuation of the Roman Empire in the form of Holy Roman Empire.

The History of Rome podcast talks a lot about present day Turkey and the rest of Asia Minor, as well as Carthage and Egypt and other North African places as they were all parts of the Empire.

I don't have anything more specific about later history, but the spice trade and the Orient Express are two (I think) fascinating pieces of history that tie Western Europe to North Africa and eastern Asia. The history of the Crusades is also integral to understand the mixing of these areas... Europe wouldn't have cared if they didn't think east Asia was "theirs" in some way.

Most of the replies are related to Roman stuff, but more 'recent' checkout the Moors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors

They created some amazing architecture and culture in Southern Spain.