Rome's Legacy Section 3, Chapter 12
Science and Engineering Romans were concerned about finding knowledge that could improve their lives They studied the stars to produce a calendar They studied plants and animals to produce better crops and meat
Galen, a Greek in the 100s AD, made many advances in medicine He discovered valves in the heart He discovered the difference between veins and arteries The Romans engineered roads and bridges that are still used today
They made cement by mixing lime with volcanic rock and ash They developed the arch, which is able to hole more weight than other shapes These were used in aqueducts to carry water from the mountains to the cities A set of arches that support the roof of a building is called a vault
Architecture and Art Architecture was largely based on earlier Greek designs They used columns on their public buildings and used marble But Roman architectural techniques allowed them to surpass the Greeks
The vault allowed them to build much larger structures They also used more domes than the Greeks did The use of cement made this possible Rome was known for its beautiful mosaics
They decorated their walls with frescos, painting done on wet plaster Roman artists excelled at painting portraits Roman sculptors studied the Greeks and copied their style
Literature and Language Virgil wrote The Aeneid Ovid wrote poems about Roman mythology The developed satire, which pokes fun at people and society They wrote history, speeches, comedies and tragedies
The language of the Roman Empire, particularly in the west, was Latin Later, Latin developed into the Romance Languages such at French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, Romanian Latin also influenced many other languages, such as our own
Law Rome’s system of law was perhaps most influential of all Roman law continued to exist even after the Empire ended It inspired civil law, a legal system based on a written code of laws
In the 1500s and 1600s European colonists carried civil law around the world, including Asia, Africa and the Americas