“The Roman Empire’s Most Important Innovations”;
Although the Roman Empire ceases to exist, it was still one of the greatest and one of the most powerful empires of its time. However the reason of its falling out is ambivalent, what is known for sure though, is that the influence of the Roman Empire left a lasting impression on the western world in almost every aspect of its western culture. The Roman Empire set a foundation for the western world to expand and grow on even though it couldn’t make it itself. The empire would continue on in spirits and the inventions and innovations which were generated in the Roman Empire profoundly altered the lives of the ancient people and continue to be used in cultures around the world today (Mark par. 15)
One of the single most important innovations the Roman’s developed were there aqueducts. The aqueducts resembled what we know today as running water, indoor plumbing and sewer systems. This was huge for maintaining such huge a society and especially beneficial to their health and well care. It was a big step towards health and sanitation in these civilizations. The aqueducts used gravity to transport water along things such as stone, lead and concrete pipelines and into their city centers from distant places. This system allowed the romans to have public baths, toilets, and drinking fountains. However Romans did not invent the aqueduct system, they were very well known for borrowing yet improving upon others work, the Greeks and Egyptians had simpler canals and irrigations. The Romans however, being the master engineers they were, perfected the aqueduct system. Some of their aqueducts were able to transport water up to 60 miles long and to this day there are still working roman aqueducts because they were so magnificently built.
Romans had a unique recipe for concrete, and although it is to be considered weak compared to the concrete we know today, it was still a huge advancement for their time. The romans had been using concrete to build with since roughly around 2,100 years ago. They used this concrete for everything from the aqueducts, the baths, buildings, monuments, and piers. Their concrete is said to have been able to withstand chemical decay. They had used volcanic ash and volcanic rocks to make their concrete. The concrete allowed them a way to build these magnificent arches used in bridges and their aqueducts. These arches which are the defining characteristics of Roman architechture. The innovation of concrete was extremely important because it led to protective structures, sanitary structures, and some of the most sophisticated roads and highways.
Roads and highways were important in the Roman Empire especially as Rome had begun to reach its most prosperous times. The highway allowed the Romans to travel up to 25 miles per day. They had a complex system of post houses which allowed messengers to deliver and receive messages in a very timely manner. Their roads were more often than not set up in the same way as the highways we know today. They had mile/destination markers and a system of soldiers set up whom resembled a type of highway patrol.
Another thing us here in the western world have in common with the Roman Empire is the social norm of a “newspaper”. That’s right, the Romans had a very primitive type of newspaper were they wrote on stones about the military, civil issues, and daily activities. Just like were set up newspapers in regularly traveled places, their stones were placed in heavily populated areas so their news would be sure to get out. Their primitive newspapers even included more personal aspects like births, deaths, and human interest stories. Definitely a more modern aspect of their society which allowed a sense of community just as we know today.
A very important innovation to our history would next come in a form we would most recognize by Julius Caesar, one of the romans 5 good emperors. Bound books. The bound books advanced from clay tablets, to bound wax tablets, to animal skin parchments. Julius Caesar is document to have stacked pages of papyrus and creating what resembled a notebook. However these bound books didn’t become popular until the time Christianity became popular. The Christians had used the bound book concept to produce copies of their bible. This innovation notably important for two reasons. The first because they were able to document things and easily keep history together, and secondly because they used it as a way to spread religious views and concepts.
Following Julius Caesar would be Augustus whom under his leadership the military came up with one of the most important medical advances. Rome had already advanced in the medical field as the engineered medical tools and came up with the cesarean section. However most important of their time was their innovations in battlefield surgery. They had during their time established one of the first military medical field teams. They had specially trained medics who now saved the lives of many of their military men. They came up with hemostatic tourniquets, which is a mechanism such as tying pieces of fabric around vessels to prohibit blood loss and also arterial surgical clamps to curb blood loss as well. In this advancement they also came up with the idea of performing physicals on recruited soldiers to ensure they were healthy and allowed them to prevent infections and disease from spreading through their military. This was huge for the military camps and sanitation. They even came up with a form of anticipant, by disinfecting medical instrument with hot water. The advancement of this military medicine was so advanced and well pioneered that the men in the military proved to live longer then the lives of the average person in Rome despite their military duties.
Now just to add a fun fact, yet an important innovation for us because it is something we more or less still use today.