In a famous scene from Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian' a group plotting against the Romans question what good they've ever done. It soon becomes apparent that in fact the Romans revolutionised society and in a comedic fashion the leader of the resistance says "All right,all right, but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?" Though the film is a bizarre adult comedy it makes a valid point that the Romans did in fact improve the lives of many of the people in territories they conquered. Britain for one was revolutionized and modernized by the Roman occupation and Britain may not have been such a force in the Middle Ages without prior Roman influence. When the Western Roman Empire somewhat fell apart in the late 300's AD the East soon converted to the Byzantine Empire with its centre in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) and included none of Italy. All of the West was free to govern itself, but many of the tribal peoples maintained the customs set by the Romans because quite frankly they provided a more comfortable style of living. That being said, let's consider some of the things we take for granted that we have the Romans to thank for.
So what did the Romans do for us? Well, what didn't they do for us? They did in fact create so much of what we consider necessities that the latter question is perhaps easier to answer!
Roads:
That's right, roads. As I'm sure you're aware, rough ground, gravel, grass, mud, whatever it may be, is simply not as practical or clean or easy to walk or drive upon as a smooth concrete road. Considering there were no cars during the Roman Empire and people were forced to use carts the need for even ground was even more prominent! Luckily for us the Romans brought their ideas to Britain and built our first roads, a theme that repeated itself over much of the world.
Concrete:
The reason that there are many Ancient Roman buildings still standing today whilst others are long forgotten is that they used concrete. Buildings were constructed from wood usually before the invention of concrete, and the trouble with wood is that it isn't very stable, is very vulnerable to poor environmental conditions (bad weather) and also extremely flammable. Setting fire to an entire village was not difficult for invaders when the entire village was made from wood. The Romans used concrete in building such wonders as the Colosseum, Pantheon and many of their aqueducts which still stand in Rome today and they were kind enough to bring that concrete with them in their travels across the globe. On the topic of building, another thing the Romans developed were arches. An arch allows for a lot more weight above it than a standard straight pillar which is why so many grand buildings involve archways.
Aqueducts (and Hygiene in general):
The Romans did not invent the system of providing running water and thus removing the need to rely constantly on a close source of water. However they did somewhat perfect it, building Aqueducts up to 60 miles long that helped provide sanitation. Disease was often responsible for more deaths in the Ancient World than war because people lacked so much hygiene that disease spread quickly and easily. The Romans created public baths (some particularly famous ones in the town of Bath here in the UK), sewers to remove waste, public latrines (toilets) and grand fountains. Several hundred years after the collapse of the Roman Empire much of Medieval Europe lacked sewers or toilets and people would simply throw their waste into the streets having used a bucket as a toilet. As well as being disgusting, this uncleanliness was a major contributor to the rapid spread of the plague in the 1300s (known as the Black Death) which killed nearly a third of the population of the world! No disease was ever so effective against the Romans and cannot be today either due to our standards of hygiene.
The Julian Calendar:
Months of the year seem a pretty standard thing, how would we ever plan when to do things without months? How would we know when Christmas is?! (Note that Christmas didn't exist for the Romans as Jesus was not even born until the reign of Augustus and Christmas was not celebrated till some centuries later). The 12 Months we use in modern day do not differ greatly from their original Latin names; Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Julius, Augustus, September, October, November December. It was Julius Caesar who realised that there are 365 days a year and not 355 as the Greeks understood previously, ultimately Caesar's Calendar was almost perfect and was just adjusted slightly by the Gregorian Calendar over 1500 years later!
Numbers (Roman Numerals):
Ultimately Roman Numerals aren't Roman they're Etruscan. However the Romans adopted them when they overthrew the Etruscans and these numbers became the basis for numeric systems worldwide so they are fairly important! The numbers we understand and use today are based on and originate from the framework of Roman numerals which are at times still used, particularly in books.
Some other key inventions from the Romans that we take for granted include irrigation (drains) to prevent flooding form heavy rains, surgery including cesarean birth (which is one theory as to where the family name Caesar originates from), public laws such as land reforms, taxes and military conscription and finally newspapers (without which so many of us would be lost). The Romans invented a lot but what they did even better was to take an idea and make it better, such as the use of coins as a monetary system rather than trading objects and the development of a running water system to aid hygiene. These inventions listed above are just a few of the hundreds of innovations we can thank Rome for, so whatever your opinion of them as a people, the Romans did do a lot for us.
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