Surprised by the hate - didn't suppose people were so attached to the Roman Empire. So:
- Sanitation: "invented" in India, perfected in the middle east and imported to Rome from there
- Medicine: aryuvedic, greek, chinese and babylonian medicine all eclipse Rome's. The Empire definitely did not invent anything there. Lookup Hippocrates for a big founder.
- Education: also a Greek and Egyptian tradition.
- Wine: strange claim. "Invented" as far back as Neolithic. Massively used in Greece. Rome improved the way wine barrels can be reused.
- Public order: not sure what you mean. There was order and dense cities before the Empire. Codified political systems and local law enforcement as well. If the "city" order is your point, then Rome and Babylon are "inventors".
- Irrigation: like most others, Rome imported fertile crescent know-how. Zero roman invention.
- Roads: the technology for smooth, paved roads existed before Rome in most middle-east. What Rome brought is empire-wide cheap labor and strategic need for straight lines (legions move faster). You could compare it to high speed rail today. Did France "invent" it, or did it get most clues from Japan? Most roman roads, being actually built for the military and not for trade, were abandoned quickly because they were too steep for long-distance cargo.
- Fresh water system: water supply in urban area has not been invented in Rome, imported as well. Like roads, cheap labor and cheap capital turned existing tech into massive, continental infrastructure
- public health: like therms and public baths? Common in the whole mediterranean world (still today).
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In comparison, the Mediterranean world before Rome discovered within a few centuries:
- the pulley
- the screw
- the water mill (greek invention just before roman conquest. The windmill was invented later on in Europe during the "middle ages")
- cement (also greek-born)
- millstone (india)
Were the Romans great engineers? Yes. For instance they brought together cement and arch technology to build some of the larger structures of that time.
Yet the Roman empire a time of great inventions? No. Few innovators in tech and abstraction. Ptolemy was egyptian. Archimedes was actually killed by the Romans when captured.
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@vacri and others below: where did I say "roman republic"? I only mentioned the Roman Empire. A deeply flawed regime built on clientelism and which survived through a flow of capital from new territorial extension towards the insiders. It was indeed crazy archaic - the integration of religions, private interests and decision making is hard to imagine to modern minds. For centuries, the Emperor actually fed a large part of the capital, paid by capital inflow from new conquests, with many critical decisions taken upon Omen interpretation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augury
I know how much love there is in the US for roman law -- but roman empire? You definitely want to be out of it.
What hate? You seem to take this pretty personally. For what it's worth, the post you're replying to was a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian. Your post contained interesting information though, so I'm sort of glad you missed the joke.
What did Rome ever do for us? They made the peace and the single state that made the spread of all of this technology happen so quickly. Britain had nearly none of that stuff before the Romans.
Comments
Surprised by the hate - didn't suppose people were so attached to the Roman Empire. So:
- Sanitation: "invented" in India, perfected in the middle east and imported to Rome from there
- Medicine: aryuvedic, greek, chinese and babylonian medicine all eclipse Rome's. The Empire definitely did not invent anything there. Lookup Hippocrates for a big founder.
- Education: also a Greek and Egyptian tradition.
- Wine: strange claim. "Invented" as far back as Neolithic. Massively used in Greece. Rome improved the way wine barrels can be reused.
- Public order: not sure what you mean. There was order and dense cities before the Empire. Codified political systems and local law enforcement as well. If the "city" order is your point, then Rome and Babylon are "inventors".
- Irrigation: like most others, Rome imported fertile crescent know-how. Zero roman invention.
- Roads: the technology for smooth, paved roads existed before Rome in most middle-east. What Rome brought is empire-wide cheap labor and strategic need for straight lines (legions move faster). You could compare it to high speed rail today. Did France "invent" it, or did it get most clues from Japan? Most roman roads, being actually built for the military and not for trade, were abandoned quickly because they were too steep for long-distance cargo.
- Fresh water system: water supply in urban area has not been invented in Rome, imported as well. Like roads, cheap labor and cheap capital turned existing tech into massive, continental infrastructure
- public health: like therms and public baths? Common in the whole mediterranean world (still today).
---
In comparison, the Mediterranean world before Rome discovered within a few centuries: - the pulley
- the screw
- the water mill (greek invention just before roman conquest. The windmill was invented later on in Europe during the "middle ages")
- cement (also greek-born)
- millstone (india)
Were the Romans great engineers? Yes. For instance they brought together cement and arch technology to build some of the larger structures of that time.
Yet the Roman empire a time of great inventions? No. Few innovators in tech and abstraction. Ptolemy was egyptian. Archimedes was actually killed by the Romans when captured.
--
@vacri and others below: where did I say "roman republic"? I only mentioned the Roman Empire. A deeply flawed regime built on clientelism and which survived through a flow of capital from new territorial extension towards the insiders. It was indeed crazy archaic - the integration of religions, private interests and decision making is hard to imagine to modern minds. For centuries, the Emperor actually fed a large part of the capital, paid by capital inflow from new conquests, with many critical decisions taken upon Omen interpretation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augury
I know how much love there is in the US for roman law -- but roman empire? You definitely want to be out of it.
What hate? You seem to take this pretty personally. For what it's worth, the post you're replying to was a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian. Your post contained interesting information though, so I'm sort of glad you missed the joke.
What did Rome ever do for us? They made the peace and the single state that made the spread of all of this technology happen so quickly. Britain had nearly none of that stuff before the Romans.