Technology

From Rome

The Romans were masters of technology. They created many famous buildings including the Colosseum. They built many buildings out of concrete as well. They used cranes to lift the blocks into place.

1 Architecture
2 Roads
3 Heating
4 Aqueducts
5 Sewers
6 Weapons
7 Links
8 References

Architecture

Roman architecture was very advanced. Two of the main characteristics of Ancient Roman architecture were arches and concrete.They invented the dome. A dome is an arch rotated 360 degrees.

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They invented concrete by mixing a very strong volcanic material called pozzolana with rubble. They were the first to use the arch in architecture and buildings. "I found Rome brick, I left it marble."

Roads

Some of the roads that they made still exist today and many modern roads were built on top of the Roman roads. There were plenty of slaves to do the nasty jobs. There is a Roman proverb "All roads lead to Rome."

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They built about 53,000 miles of roads. This is because Rome was the center of everything. Whenever a new city was conquered there was a road built from there to Rome. Roman roads often had four layers. The top layer was usually made of pavement, flat hard stones, concrete, or pebbles set in mortar.

Heating

Central heating was used by wealthy families and in public baths.

Aqueducts

Although rome was built on the River Tiber the water was too polluted to use as their water supply. So made aqueducts to get water from the hills and mountains around them to their city.

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"Aqueducts were systems of pipes or channels that use gravity to move water." The Roman aqueducts began in 312 b.c.e. and by 226 b.c. there were 11 Roman aqueducts that brought at least 40 million gallons of water to the city every day. Aqueducts use slightly sloped covered canals or tunnels to transport the water. "Romans confined aqueduct bridges to a height of 150 feet."

Sewers

They built basic sewers because the city was in a valley so there was no place for the water to go. It was one of the greatest "Roman" achievements and it made it possible for Rome to become the largest city in the world. As it turns out the Etruscan's invented the sewer when they were ruling Rome but the Romans took the idea and got all the credit.

Weapons

They also invented new weapons on boats for their military. Roman slaves who built ships, developed a plank that that had a huge iron spike at the end. With this new invention, they could go by enemy ships, and fight as if the battle was on land.