What Did The Romans Ever Do For Us?

[Princeps]

This came up on a general chat forum that I frequent. The guy who asked it didn't seem to think they did all that much, I would like to prove him wrong, but I can't come up with many specific examples.

 

Some things written by other people -

-Sewerage system, schooling, aquaducts

 

I thought -

-Hadrians wall, protecting the tribes from marauding Scots

-Effective coinage/currency (not too sure what currency was like in pre-Roman Britain)

-Better farming (irrigation etc)

-Military reform? (Probably not, I think the British tribes didn't learn all that much)

-Public hygene (again though, I'm not to sure what the standards were in Btittania)

 

 

Any help much appreciated.

[Viggen]

Rome had a lasting impact on our legal system...

 

regards

viggen

[longbow]

Concrete

Ball bearings (my favourite )

central heating

roads(before the Romans came there was only tracks)

Trade, with the rest of the Empire

Law

 

 

Longbow

[Ursus]

Turn the question around. What did Rome NOT do for us?

Look at Europe and is cultural legacy. You'll probably find a few major ancient cultural zones.

 

Roman

Greek

Germanic

Celtic

Slavic

 

 

 

Of that list I think the two most important were Greece and Rome. If Rome carried on the torch of Greece, which it did to some extent, then Rome gets credit for that. The Greco-Roman legacy dwarfs the other cultural legacies.

 

The Celtic legacy is pretty much confined to the British isles, the Germanic legacy to Britain and its former colonies. Slavic civilization owes something to the Greeks for their alphabet, religion and system of government. On the Continent of Europe it would seem a combined Greco-Roman legacy prevails.

[Tobias]

One can also thank the Romans largely for our language, English. Given many other languages make up english, but quite a lot of english descends from latin, and we still use latin terms for example "Quid pro quo" and "et cetera" and "vice versa" and on.

[DecimusCaesar]

Architecture. The Greco-Roman architectural style, with its columns and arches has become a symbol of power, that's why many buildings such as banks, court houses and even buildings such as the White house and Congress have Greo-Roman style architecture.

[Favonius Cornelius]

Pax Romana!

 

Love it or die.

[P.Clodius]

Without Rome we'd probably be living in a taliban/neanderthal type society. I believe I already posted on the subject as there was a thread with a similar title from around 6 mths ago.

[Demson]

Inspiration.

[Incitatus]

The romans created an interesting period to discuss, like we r doin now!!!

[DanM]

The romans created an interesting period to discuss, like we r doin now!!!

15107[/snapback]

 

Darn! You took my answer. I was going to say lots of good reading material.

[pompeius magnus]

The Romans showed everyone how oration should be done and thus gave to us Cicero. Also Roman Literature such as the writing of Ovid, Virgil, Catullus, and my personal favorite Martius.

[dianamt54]

Rome gave the USA our form of government.

Marius gave the world the standing army.

Almost all cities are based on a grid, and have a center point like a forum. Even the small hell hole I live in.

Public libraries, firemen and police.

If you look past the Republic, Imperial Rome, to the Church of Rome, religion.

[Maty]

So that's what the Romans did for us. The question is would anyone else have done it if the Romans were not around? Let's take a look at some of the points mentioned here.

 

Sewers and Aqueducts. The Etruscans taught the Romans how to make sewers (and roads). There were aqueducts in other parts of the world as well as Rome - e.g. fifth century Athens - (anyway aqueducts never caught on in Britain for some reason).

 

Town planning with a grid system - Hippodamus - was Greek and did it for the Piraeas in Athens and Alexandria in Egypt. Oratory - before Cicero there was Demosthenes, and before Demosthenes there was Pirekles. Currency and alphabet - Phoenicia, and laws, Hammaburai.

 

Language - our language system is basically Germanic, though we use some Latin vocabulary (which we got mostly from the French after 1066). However, English uses auxilaries and basic verb forms with word order for meaning, whereas Latin uses a rigid inflexion system.

 

So, assuming the Brits were not stupid (and Stonehenge predates the pyramids, so they knew a bit) they would have picked up most of what the Romans had anyway. And bear in mind that archeology suggests that the Romans did not so much 'give' these things to the Brits, as bring them for themselves whilst occupying the island. Most Brits seem to have spoken their own language and lived in wattle huts as ever.

 

Particularly Roman innovations seem to have been gladiatorial shows, and fast-drying cement. (And according to another post I will have to look at ball bearings!) Basically there was an entire Mediterranean civilization which helped to make the western world. We get a lot of our culture from Greeks, Egyptians, Semitic peoples and the Assyrians and Bablyonians. Until they had conquered and absorbed these cultures into their own, the Romans did not contribute much apart from sudden death, which is why the above civilizations considered the Romans as barbarians until about 250 BC.

[dianamt54]

So that's what the Romans did for us. The question is would anyone else have done it if the Romans were not around? Let's take a look at some of the points mentioned here.

Sewers and Aqueducts. The Etruscans taught the Romans how to make sewers (and roads). There were aqueducts in other parts of the world as well as Rome - e.g. fifth century Athens - (anyway aqueducts never caught on in Britain for some reason).

Town planning with a grid system - Hippodamus - was Greek and did it for the Piraeas in Athens and Alexandria in Egypt. Oratory - before Cicero there was Demosthenes, and before Demosthenes there was Pirekles. Currency and alphabet - Phoenicia, and laws, Hammaburai.

Language - our language system is basically Germanic, though we use some Latin vocabulary (which we got mostly from the French after 1066). However, English uses auxilaries and basic verb forms with word order for meaning, whereas Latin uses a rigid inflexion system.

So, assuming the Brits were not stupid (and Stonehenge predates the pyramids, so they knew a bit) they would have picked up most of what the Romans had anyway. And bear in mind that archeology suggests that the Romans did not so much 'give' these things to the Brits, as bring them for themselves whilst occupying the island. Most Brits seem to have spoken their own language and lived in wattle huts as ever.Particularly Roman innovations seem to have been gladiatorial shows, and fast-drying cement. (And according to another post I will have to look at ball bearings!) Basically there was an entire Mediterranean civilization which helped to make the western world. We get a lot of our culture from Greeks, Egyptians, Semitic peoples and the Assyrians and Bablyonians. Until they had conquered and absorbed these cultures into their own, the Romans did not contribute much apart from sudden death, which is why the above civilizations considered the Romans as barbarians until about 250 BC.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering, why then are the Romans credited with all this? Are the Greeks being forgotten? Why is Rome more known?