Ancient Rome

==Technology==
{{Main|Ancient Roman technology}}
[[File:Pont du Gard 3.jpg|thumb|right|[[Pont du Gard]] in France is a [[Roman aqueduct]] built in c.&nbsp;19&nbsp;BC. It is a [[World Heritage Site]].]]
Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advancements that were lost in the [[Middle Ages]] and not rivalled again until the 19th and 20th centuries. An example of this is [[insulated glazing]], which was not invented again until the 1930s. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier Greek designs. Advancements were often divided and based on craft. [[trade (profession)|Artisans]] guarded technologies as [[trade secret]]s.<ref>Ancient Roman laws protected against a person corrupting slaves to obtain secrets about the master's arts. {{Cite book |last=Zeidman |first=Bob |url=https://archive.org/details/softwareipdetect00zeid_321 |title=The Software IP Detective's Handbook: : Measurement, Comparison, and Infringement Detection |date=2011 |publisher=Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0137035335 |edition= |page=[https://archive.org/details/softwareipdetect00zeid_321/page/n129 103] |url-access=limited}}</ref>

[[Ancient Roman engineering|Roman civil engineering]] and [[Roman military engineering|military engineering]] constituted a large part of Rome's technological superiority and legacy, and contributed to the construction of hundreds of [[Roman road|roads]], [[Roman bridge|bridges]], [[Roman aqueduct|aqueducts]], [[Thermae|public baths]], [[Roman theatre (structure)|theatres]] and [[Roman amphitheatre|arenas]]. Many monuments, such as the [[Colosseum]], [[Pont du Gard]], and [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]], remain as testaments to Roman engineering and culture.

The Romans were renowned for their [[Roman architecture|architecture]], which is grouped with Greek traditions into "[[Classical architecture]]". Although there were many differences from [[Architecture of ancient Greece|Greek architecture]], Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new [[classical order|orders]] of columns, [[composite order|composite]] and [[Tuscan order|Tuscan]], and from the [[dome]], which was derived from the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] [[arch]], Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Republic.

In the 1st century BC, Romans started to use [[Roman concrete]] widely. Concrete was [[Roman architectural revolution|invented]] in the late 3rd century BC. It was a powerful cement derived from [[pozzolana]], and soon supplanted [[marble]] as the chief Roman building material and allowed many daring architectural forms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Winter |first=Thomas Nelson |date=1979 |title=Roman Concrete: The Ascent, Summit, and Decline of an Art |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/1 |journal=Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences |volume=7 |pages=137–143}}</ref> Also in the 1st century BC, [[Vitruvius]] wrote {{Lang|la|[[De architectura]]}}, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In the late 1st century BC, Rome also began to use [[glassblowing]] soon after its invention in Syria about 50&nbsp;BC. [[Mosaic]]s took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]]'s campaigns in Greece.

The Romans also largely built using timber, causing a rapid decline of the woodlands surrounding Rome and in much of the Apennine Mountains due to the demand for wood for construction, shipbuilding and fire. The first evidence of long-distance wood trading come from the discovery of wood planks, felled between AD 40 and 60, coming from the Jura mountains in northeastern France and ending up more than {{convert|1,055|miles|-1}} away, in the foundations of a lavish portico that was part of a vast wealthy patrician villa, in Central Rome. It is suggested that timber, around {{convert|4|metres}} long, came up to Rome via the Tiber River on ships travelling across the Mediterranean Sea from the confluence of the [[Saône]] and [[Rhône]] rivers in what is now the city of [[Lyon]] in present-day France.<ref>Choi, Charles Q. (4 December 2019). [https://www.insidescience.org/news/muddy-find-shows-how-foreign-timber-helped-build-ancient-rome "Muddy Find Shows How Foreign Timber Helped Build Ancient Rome."] ''InsideScience.org''. Retrieved 22 May 2020.</ref>

[[File:Appia antica 2-7-05 048.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Appian Way]] (''Via Appia''), a road connecting the city of Rome to the southern parts of Italy, remains usable even today]]
With solid foundations and good drainage,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Roman road system |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/Roman-road-system |access-date=19 August 2017 |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.}}</ref> [[Roman roads]] were known for their durability and many segments of the Roman road system were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. They allowed [[Roman legion]]s to be deployed rapidly, with predictable marching times between key points of the empire, no matter the season.{{Sfn|Keegan|1993|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwarfare00keeg/page/303 303]}} These highways also had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the saying "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained a system of way stations, known as the ''[[cursus publicus]]'', and established a system of horse relays allowing a dispatch to travel up to {{Convert|80|km|0|abbr=on}} a day.

The Romans constructed numerous [[aqueduct (watercourse)|aqueducts]] to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to aid in [[Roman agriculture|their agriculture]]. By the third century, the city of Rome was supplied by [[List of aqueducts in the city of Rome|11 aqueducts]] with a combined length of {{Convert|450|km|0|abbr=on}}. The Romans also made major advancements in [[sanitation]]. Romans were particularly famous for their public [[bathing|baths]], called ''[[thermae]]'', which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses had [[flush toilet]]s and [[Tap water|indoor plumbing]], and a complex [[Sanitary sewer|sewer]] system, the ''[[Cloaca Maxima]]'', was used to drain the local [[marsh]]es and carry waste into the Tiber. Some historians have speculated that lead pipes in the sewer and plumbing systems led to widespread [[lead poisoning]], which contributed to [[decline of the Roman Empire|fall of Rome]]; however, lead content would have been minimised.<ref>{{cite book|publisher = Duckworth|isbn = 9780715621943|title= Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply|first= A.T.|last= Hodge |date=1992}}</ref><ref name="Grout2011">{{Cite web |last=Grout |first= James |title=Lead Poisoning and Rome |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html |url-status=live |archive-url= https://www.webcitation.org/60N6AQZTk?url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 |access-date=22 July 2011 |publisher=University of Chicago}}</ref>