Contributions of Ancient Rome
Dr. East
2/25/14
How Did Roman
Achievements/Thought/Culture
Influence Western Civilization?
• What do you know so far?
Art & Architecture
Pantheon: Temple
built in 117-126 AD
under Hadrian, for
"all the gods,”
survived because it
was reconsecrated as
a Christian church in
the 7th century. It is
thought to be one of
the greatest
architectural
achievements and it
has influenced later
architecture perhaps
more than any other
building.
Art & Architecture Cont.
The Colosseum:
amphitheater built
under Vespasian and
Titus (70 – 80 A.D.),
concrete and stone and
could hold 50,00080,000 people
Art & Architecture Cont.
The Forum: What
was this?
Technology:
Excellent Roads
Technology: Aqueducts
Roman Arches
Science: Ptolemy
Contributed to Astronomic and
Geographic knowledge and
techniques
Medicine
• Hygiene … public baths,
public water systems,
etc., systems of flushing
toilets, stirgils used in
baths, etc.
• http://ancienthistory.ab
out.com/od/hygienebat
hs/a/102310-HygieneIn-Ancient-Rome.htm
• Medicine and Medical
schools continued in the
Greek tradition?
• Remember? Who was a
famous Greek that
contributed much to
Medicine?
• Latin – precursor to all romance languages
Language
Literature: Virgil’s Aeneid (19 B.C.)
•
the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic poem, written by
Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who
travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of
9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter.[1] The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the
story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of
the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas
and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
•
The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having
been a character in the Iliad, composed in the 8th century BC. Virgil took the
disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the
foundation of Rome and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a
scrupulous piety, and fashioned this into a compelling founding myth or national
epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the Punic wars,
glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as
descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZt3no1-5-g
•
Law
• The Principle of “Innocent Until Guilty” in a
court of law comes from 12 Tables.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GNpv6p
BgBI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcTv6DJFu
5A (British version) ;o)