When Rome finally collapsed there were technologies in Rome that would not be seen in Europe for over 1,000 years. Rome was the first city in the world to have more than 1 million inhabitants. The Romans solved the engineering problems that allowed this to take place.
The legacy of Rome and its effects on the Western world remain to this day. The Romans invented concrete 2,000 years ago. I have heard of analyses where engineers say that Roman structures will outlive MODERN CONCRETE structures because we reinforce them with steel. Steel expands and contracts differently and it breaks up concrete. So ... Roman structures will OUTLIVE modern concrete structures because it does not contain steel inside!
The Romans had cities with clean running water in them all the time. They built proper roads. The Romans brought us a lot of our law. To this day, we have professional standing armies and many other things that the Romans invented.
The legacy of Rome and its effects on the Western world remain to this day. The Romans invented concrete 2,000 years ago. I have heard of analyses where engineers say that Roman structures will outlive MODERN CONCRETE structures because we reinforce them with steel. Steel expands and contracts differently and it breaks up concrete. So ... Roman structures will OUTLIVE modern concrete structures because it does not contain steel inside!
The Romans had cities with clean running water in them all the time. They built proper roads. The Romans brought us a lot of our law. To this day, we have professional standing armies and many other things that the Romans invented.
But the Roman world was a very male-dominated testosterone-filled world run by RAMPANT LOGICAL WHITE MEN who never accepted defeat in any form. For them, it was a fight to the death, and nothing scared them. They developed a contempt for death. I still want to write about Roman gladiators, and what Roman gladiators did. And there was a time when normal Romans also became gladiators. Gladiators were the sportsmen of their time in Rome. All modern sport is anyway derived from ancient sport and ancient sport was all about preparing for war - hence, various types of running and jumping... and of course javelin throwing, archery, etc. The thing that still makes my skin crawl endlessly is when I think of one documentary I saw where they discovered how men were really killed when they were gladiators. Only 8% of gladiators actually were executed. Even so... it was still a nasty process. The actual death blow was to a man who was on the ground, very possibly on his knees. They shoved the sword in, through his neck, down into his heart, bypassing his rib cage. I get cold just thinking about it. But apparently, the men were so trained that when the moment came, they faced it without flinching. Incredible really. The Romans loved a good fight. The Romans were farmers who created an incredible society which became the greatest political structure the Western world had ever known.
