We can thank the ancient Romans for a lot of the innovations that we make use of even today. What made them unique to countless other empires is that the Romans didn’t conquer and destroy, at least not most of the time. Typically, they would instead conquer and assimilate, meaning they would adopt some of the best practices of the dominated culture – both social, cultural, and scientific – and integrate them successfully into their vast empire. Over the centuries, as people became more skilled and learnt from other scholars and engineers.
One of the areas that the Romans truly excelled was in construction. The many Roman buildings that are still very much intact 2000 years later are a testament to just how well they built their buildings. And recent discoveries have shown just how refined their construction methods truly were.
The Arch
Arches are by no means a new invention; humans discovered a long time ago that arches could support more weight than just straight beams. The Romans were well aware of arches, adopting their design from the Greeks, but where the Greeks designs were somewhat limited, the Romans were able to refine the creation of arches and make them that much more durable. Their work on arches also allowed them to build strong bridges, and some of them were incredibly high up – with the famous aqueducts being some of the best examples of this.
Concrete
Perhaps the biggest factor in the longevity in Roman buildings was the concrete that they used. While modern concrete can last a few decades with conventional materials, Roman concrete has stood the test of time, and has lasted sometimes more than 2000 years mostly intact.
In fact, it’s believed that concrete was one of the most important inventions that the Romans ever made, allowing them to create strong buildings faster than using wood or stone. For the first time, humans were building larger buildings that could accommodate more people, but with added architectural and artistic flair. It’s also argued that Roman concrete is the most significant contribution of the Romans to modern construction and architecture.
Consider how many of our modern buildings make use of Roman design; it’s found through virtually every aspect of our lives, from governmental buildings, media, and even more obscure industries like online pokies or blackjack games developers that make use of Roman architectural themes in the games that they make.
The Aqueducts
We’ve probably all heard of the aqueducts, which were responsible for bringing in large amounts of water to some of the larger Roman cities. The Romans knew that securing water for everyone was an important part of maintaining a city with a large population, and the aqueducts were perfect for the job. They were also incredibly long, with some having ranges as wide as 50 kilometres, and could bring tens of thousands of cubic metres of water every single day into cities like Rome. They are still very much considered marvels of engineering.
