Roman Inventions
Ancient Rome is known for many things from gladiators, to conquest to the first form of democracy. Less well known, but just as impressive, are the Roman inventions from this period of time.
Roman Inventions
The Roman Empire contributed much to our current way of life. Rome's government, culture and scientific achievements still affect us today, with many of the ideas we use now stemming from that society. While some of the Roman inventions devised during the long reign of the Roman Empire were eventually lost in the Dark and Middle Ages, others were discovered, improved upon and are used to this day.
Most of the Roman inventions that are credited to that society actually came from the Etruscans, a civilization that was located to the south of Rome when it was still a small kingdom. The Etruscans had developed such technology as stone arches for the support of large structures and sewer systems. Without taking this knowledge from the Etruscans, Rome would have stayed stuck with the open-air trenches and unpaved roads that were common to the area around it.
Other Roman inventions came about as a result of studying Greek technology. Many of the weapons and water craft that were built for Roman armies came from prototypes that were seen while Rome was at war with Greece in the Hellenic Wars. The acquiring and developing of new technology generally was done at a slow rate in Rome by today's standards, but a large number of new inventions were created in one period: the time between the 2nd and 1st Centuries BC. The Roman inventions created during this period include wine and oil presses, domes, Roman arches, concrete, plumbing, machines used to harvest crops and glass blowing.
While technology today is created by scientists and rapidly adopted by people all over the world, this was not the case in Rome. There were some types of inventions that once created, did not catch on, even if they were better than what was currently being used. One example of this was the use of barrels – even though they were developed for use in Rome, most of the Empire chose to use a more fragile type of transport known as amphora. It took a long time for barrels to catch on as being better to transport liquid.
Without many of the Roman inventions that were created in ancient Rome, our lives would be completely different. Most of these inventions would have probably been devised by other cultures at some point, but the growth of the world would not have taken such a quick path if Rome had not created so much in the way of technology.
