Through a combination of documentary footage and animated story sequences, Roman City examines how cities helped maintain the Roman Empire. This program explores the role of the built environment in meeting and shaping people's needs. In this live-action segments, Macaulay visits many sites throughout the former Roman Empire including the Colosseum in Rome, the Pont du Gard in France, and the ruins of Pompeii and explains how various structures were built and how they were used. The animated segments tell the story of the construction of a fictional Roman city in the newly conquered territory of Gaul, visualizing both the ingenuity of Roman technology and the resistance of the local inhabitants.