ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ROMANS
Romans achieved many feats, some of which include art, engineering, architecture, language and law.
Art
Ancient Romans paid thousands of painters, sculptors, and craftspeople to make their work come to life. Wealthy households had beautiful mosaics and murals which were all left behind. They were also skilled at making statues. Art was majorly inspired by Greek artwork, so it is widely known as
"Greco-Roman art".
"Greco-Roman art".
Engineering
Romans were masters at engineering. They built outstanding roads, bridges, and aqueducts. Aqueducts are basically pipes to transport water for a long distance, sort of like pipes in your sink. Romans built roughly 50,000 miles of road out of stone, gravel, and sand. Their techniques of building these roads set the standard of road construction for "2,000 years". Ancient Romans didn't invent aqueducts, but instead they innovated them once again, and some aqueducts carried water from "sixty miles away to the homes of the wealthiest citizens", which is incredible for their time.
Architecture
The Romans learned how to use the arch, vault, and dome. The vault is support for a roof. They were also were the first to widespread use of concrete, which allowed them to create giant arches, much bigger than anyone had ever attempted before. Lastly, they invented the stadium which is widely used today for many sports events. The architecture of Ancient Rome has influenced present-day architecture in many ways.
Language
Latin was commonly used in Ancient Rome. Today, we use Latin, but we've changed it up a little. In Ancient Rome, they used 23 letters, but today we use 26. Also, many of our common day words originate from Latin. But it's not just English which was inspired by Latin. Italian, Spanish, and French developed from Latin. Many of our English words' prefixes are from Latin, too. It's not just Latin words we use, however. We also use Roman Numerals today in common english math and language.
An example of the Latin language.
Law
Roman laws covered marriage, inheritances, contracts, and many of the modern day laws we cover today. France and Italy are based off of Roman law and justice. But, justice was different in Ancient Roman times. The Romans believed nature provided a universal law of justice. The Romans believed everyone had natural rights, which is the concept that there is a universal order built into nature that can guide moral thinking. Romans applied this to all citizens, and judges tried to make justified decisions. But, the courtrooms didn't always treat everyone fair, because sometimes poor slaves were not treated equally as rich citizens. Emperors also made bad laws, which is another con of the Roman Empire. But, today the United States Declaration of Independence was based on the Roman ideas of government. But, today we've bent some of those ideas and kept others.