Roman Contributions

Roman Contributions The Romans are considered among the greatest architects of ancient times. They were incredible builders and excellent engineers. The Romans cannot take all the credit for their accomplishments though; some of their inventions were just improvements on older ideas or concepts from Greece. Aqueducts are one thing the Romans got from Greece, although, they were not called aqueducts in Greece. The Greeks were the first to have a mass water supply system. They used water pumps to supply the city with water. The Romans took this idea and made it better. Romans built long stone channels to carry clean water from nearby hills to the towns. Known as aqueducts, these channels were extremely difficult to build. With the building of the aqueducts, the Romans were able to serve a large city, as well as small towns, and industrial sites with water. Another thing borrowed from the Greeks is the arch. The purpose of the arch in Greek culture was limited to supporting small structures, such as storerooms. This design limited the size and scope of the building. Builders could not construct extremely large building because the arch could not support it. However, the ancient Romans created an arch that could support huge amounts of weight. The Romans created this arch, a very strong shape as no single spot holds all the weight, with the use of concrete which I will get to later. With this the Romans were able to build massive buildings and structures and freed architects to explore different and larger structures. The Colosseum is a perfect example of the Roman arch at its finest. The arch was so important that it is still used in architecture today. The Romans built incredible bridges and roads. They built them first as a priority for their military to get around but then realized the common people could use them as well. The famous saying, “All roads lead to Rome” comes from the fact that there were roads everywhere in Rome. Everything in Rome was connected by a road. Many of the roads and bridges constructed back in Ancient Rome are still used today; that is how well constructed they were. Another great Roman invention is cement. Made of lime and sand the Romans used cement to construct many of their buildings before marble, brick, stone, or concrete were used. The tradition of Roman architecture has had an important influence on American structures. Many courthouses throughout the US can be seen to resemble Roman architecture. A very good example is the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington. The core of the building can be seen to be directly based on the Roman Temple type. Like Roman temples, the free standing columns appear in front of the Supreme Court building. Overall, the Romans have a tremendous impact on modern structures. They laid the basis for modern architecture. I believe the Romans had such widespread achievement because of their amazing skills in engineering and architecture of that period in time.