RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
are generally famous for their advanced
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology inconceivable in Greece. The architecture used in Rome was strongly influenced by
GreekArchitecture was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period to the 7th century BC, when plebian life and prosperity recovered to a point where public building could be undertaken...
and
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
sources. Roads were common at that time, but the Romans improved their design and perfected the construction to the extent that many of their roads are still in use today. Their accomplishments surpassed most other civilizations of the time, and many of their structures have withstood the test of time to inspire others, especially during the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
. Moreover, their contributions were described in some detail by authors such as
VitruviusMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices...
, Frontinus and
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, so there is a printed record of their many inventions and achievements.
Aqueducts
Three hundred million gallons of water were brought into Rome by 11 different aqueducts each day. Per capita water usage in Rome matched that of modern-day cities like New York City or modern Rome. Most water was for public uses, such as
bathsThe terms balnea or thermae were the words the ancient Romans used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization. Baths were extremely important for Romans. They stayed there for...
and sewers. The aqueducts could stretch from ten to sixty miles long, and decreased from an elevation of one thousand feet above sea level at the source, to two hundred feet when they reached the reservoirs around the city. Roman engineers used
siphonA siphon is a continuous tube that allows liquid to drain from a reservoir through an intermediate point that is higher, or lower, than the reservoir, the flow being driven only by the difference in hydrostatic pressure without any need for pumping...
s to force water uphill when they judged it impractical to build a raised aqueduct across a particular depression.
The Romans were among the first civilizations to harness the power of water. They built some of the first
watermillA watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping...
s outside of Greece for grinding flour and spread the technology for constructing watermills throughout the Mediterranean. A famous example occurs at Barbegal in southern France, where no fewer than 16 overshot mills built into the side of a hill were worked by a single aqueduct, the outlet from one feeding the mill below in a cascade. They were also skilled in conducting mining operations such as building the many aqueducts needed for prospecting for metal veins, in methods like
hydraulic miningHydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that employs water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. Previously, the use of a large volume of water had been developed by the Romans to remove overburden and then gold-bearing debris as in Las Médulas of Spain, and Dolaucothi in...
, and the building of reservoirs to hold the water at the minehead. It is certain that they were also capable of building and operating mine equipment such as crushing mills and dewatering machines. Large diameter vertical wheels of Roman vintage, for raising water, have been excavated from the
Rio TintoThe Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London, England and Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
mines in Southwestern Spain. They were closely involved in exploiting
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
resources such as those at Dolaucothi in south west
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
and in north-west Spain, a country where
gold miningGold mining consists of the processes and techniques employed in the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques by which gold may be extracted from the Earth.-Panning:...
developed on a very large scale in the early part of the first century AD, such as at
Las MedulasLas Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in the region of El Bierzo , used to be the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire...
.
Bridges
Roman bridges were among the first large and lasting bridges built.They were built with stone and had the
archAn arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-History:Arches...
as its basic structure. Most utilized concrete as well.
Built in
142 BC-Judea:* Simon Maccabaeus succeeds his brother Jonathan as High Priest of Judea until 135 BC....
, the
Pons AemiliusThe Pons Aemilius , today called Ponte Rotto, is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. Preceded by a wooden version, it was rebuilt in stone in the 2nd century BC...
, later named
Ponte Rotto (broken bridge) is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. The biggest Roman bridge was
Trajan's bridgeTrajan's Bridge or Bridge of Apollodorus over the Danube was a Roman bridge , the first to be built over the lower Danube. For more than a thousand years, it was the longest arch bridge in the world to have been built, in terms of both total and span length...
over the lower Danube, constructed by
Apollodorus of DamascusApollodorus of Damascus was a Syrian or Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor who flourished during the 2nd century AD. He was born in Damascus, Syria, and was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia...
, which remained for over a millennium the longest bridge to have been built both in terms of overall and span length. They were most of the time at least 18 meters above the body of water.
An example of temporary military bridge construction are the two
Caesar's Rhine bridgesCaesar's Bridge across the Rhine, the first two bridges to cross the Rhine River, were built by Julius Caesar and his legionaries during the Gallic War in 55 BC and 53 BC, respectively...
.
Dams
The Romans built many
damsDriot-Arnoux Motorsport is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver René Arnoux. It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.- History :The year after its foundation,...
for water collection, such as the
SubiacoSubiaco may refer to:*Subiaco, Italy, site of St. Benedict's first monastery*Subiaco, Western Australia, suburb of Perth*City of Subiaco, local government municipality in Perth, Western Australia centred on the suburb of the same name...
dams, two of which fed
Anio NovusAnio Novus is an aqueduct, which, like the Aqua Claudia, was begun by Caligula in 38¹ AD and completed in 52 AD by Claudius, who dedicated them both on August 1.-Details:It was the highest in level of all the aqueducts that came into the city...
, the largest aqueduct supplying Rome. One of the
SubiacoSubiaco may refer to:*Subiaco, Italy, site of St. Benedict's first monastery*Subiaco, Western Australia, suburb of Perth*City of Subiaco, local government municipality in Perth, Western Australia centred on the suburb of the same name...
dams was reputedly the highest ever found or inferred. They built 72 dams in Spain, such as those at
MéridaMérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It has a population of 55,568 .- History :It was founded in the year 25 BC, with the name of Emerita Augusta by order of Emperor Augustus, to...
, and many more are known across the empire. At one site, Montefurado in Galicia, they appear to have built a dam across the river Sil to expose alluvial gold deposits in the bed of the river. The site is near the spectacular Roman gold mine of
Las MedulasLas Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in the region of El Bierzo , used to be the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire...
. Several earthen dams are known from Britain, including a well-preserved example from Roman Lanchester,
LongoviciumLongovicium was an auxiliary castra on Dere Street, in the Roman province of Britannia Inferior...
, where it may have been used in industrial-scale smithing or
smeltingSmelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
, judging by the piles of slag found at this site in northern England. Tanks for holding water are also common along aqueduct systems, and numerous examples are known from just one site, the gold mines at Dolaucothi in west
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
. Masonry dams were common in North Africa for providing a reliable water supply from the
wadiWadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley; in some cases it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...
s behind many settlements.
Architecture
The buildings and architecture of
Ancient RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
were impressive even by modern standards. The
Circus MaximusThe Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest Chariot Racing Stadium in ancient Rome...
, for example, was large enough to be used as a stadium. The
ColosseumThe Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
also provides an example of Roman architecture at its finest. One of many stadiums built by the Romans, the Colosseum exhibits the arches and curves commonly associated with Roman buildings. The
Pantheon, RomeThe Pantheon is a building in...
still stands a monument and tomb, and the
Baths of DiocletianThe church of San Bernardo alle Terme recycled one of only two circular towers in the rectangular boundary of the baths, flanking its southwestern wall...
and the
Baths of CaracallaThe Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla. The extensive ruins of the baths have become a popular tourist attraction....
are remarkable for their state of preservation, the former still possessing intact
domeA dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
s. Such massive public buildings were copied in numerous provincial capitals and towns across the empire, and the general principles behind their design and construction are described by
VitruviusMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices...
writing at the turn of millennium in his monumental work
De Architecturaright|thumbnail|A 1521 [[Italian language]] edition of De architectura, translated and illustrated by [[Cesare Cesariano]].' is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for building projects...
. The technology developed for the baths was especially impressive, especially the widespread use of the
hypocaustA hypocaust is an ancient Roman system of central heating. The word literally means "heat from below", from the Greek hypo meaning below or underneath, and kaiein, to burn or light a fire...
for one of the first types of
central heatingA central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC system.Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation...
developed anywhere. That invention was used not just in the large public buildings, but spread to domestic buildings such as the many
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
s which were built across the Empire.
Materials
The most common materials used were
brickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.-History:The oldest shaped bricks found date back to 7,500 B.C. They have been found in Çayönü, in the upper Tigris region, and in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings,...
,
stoneDimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and fabricated to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements...
or
masonryMasonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone such as marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, and...
,
cementIn the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term "opus caementicium" to describe masonry which resembled concrete and was made from crushed...
,
concreteConcrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water, and chemical admixtures...
and
marbleMarble is a non foliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications...
. Brick came in many different shapes. Curved bricks were used to build columns, and triangular bricks were used to build walls.
Marble was mainly a decorative material. Caesar
AugustusGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
once boasted that he had turned Rome from a city of stone to a city of marble. The Romans had originally brought marble over from Greece, but later found their own quarries in northern Italy.
Cement, also known as
mortarMortar is a workable paste used to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The blocks may be stone, brick, cinder blocks, etc. Mortar becomes hard when it sets, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure. Modern mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder...
, was originally invented in Asia. It was made of hydrated lime (calcium oxide) mixed with sand and water. The Romans discovered that substituting or supplementing the sand with a
pozzolanic additiveA pozzolan is a material which, when combined with calcium hydroxide, exhibits cementitious properties. Pozzolans are commonly used as an addition to Portland cement concrete mixtures to increase the long-term strength and other material properties of Portland cement concrete, and in some cases...
, such as volcanic ash, would produce a very hard cement, known as hydraulic mortar or hydraulic cement. They used it widely in structures such as buildings, public baths and aqueducts, ensuring their survival into the modern era.
Roads
Roman roads were constructed to be immune to floods and other environmental hazards. Many roads built by the Romans are still in use today.
There were several variations on a standard Roman road. Most of the higher quality roads were composed of five layers. The bottom layer, called
pavimentum, was one inch thick and made of mortar. Above this were four strata of masonry. The layer directly above the pavimentum was called the
statumen. It was one foot thick, and was made of stones bound together by cement or clay. Above that, there were the
rudens, which were made of ten inches of rammed concrete. The next layer, the
nucleus, was made of twelve to eighteen inches of successively laid and rolled layers of concrete.
Summa crusta of silex or lava polygonal slabs, one to three feet in diameter and eight to twelve inches thick, were laid on top of the rudens. The final upper surface was made of concerete or well smoothed and fitted flint.
Generally, when a road encountered an obstacle, the Romans preferred to engineer a solution to the obstacle rather than redirecting the road around it. Bridges were constructed over all sizes of waterway, marshy ground called for the construction of raised causeways with firm foundations, and hills and outcroppings were frequently cut or tunneled through rather than avoided.
They are made with square stone bricks.
Mining
The Romans were the first to exploit mineral deposits using advanced technology, especially the use of aqueducts to bring water from great distances to help operations at the pithead. Their technology is most visible at sites in Britain such as Dolaucothi where they exploited gold deposits with at least 5 long aqueducts tapping adjacent rivers and streams. They used the water to prospect for ore by unleashing a wave of water from a tank to scour away the soil and so reveal the bedrock with any veins exposed to sight. They used the same method (known as
hushingHushing is an ancient mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins. The method was applied in several ways, both in prospecting for ores, and for their exploitation. Mineral veins are often hidden below soil and sub-soil, which must be stripped away to discover the ore...
) to remove waste rock, and then to quench hot rocks weakened by
fire-settingFire-setting is a method of mining used mostly in antiquity. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the stone, which was then doused with water causing the stone to fracture by thermal shock. This technique was best performed in opencast mines where the smoke and fumes could dissipate safely....
. Such methods could be very effective in opencast mining, but fire-setting was very dangerous when used in underground workings. They were made redundant with the introduction of explosives, although
hydraulic miningHydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that employs water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. Previously, the use of a large volume of water had been developed by the Romans to remove overburden and then gold-bearing debris as in Las Médulas of Spain, and Dolaucothi in...
is still used on alluvial
tinTin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead, like the two possible oxidation states +2 and +4...
ores. They were also used to produce a controlled supply to wash the crushed ore. It is highly likely that they also developed water-powered
stamp millA stamp mill is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operation....
s to crush hard ore, which could be washed to collect the heavy gold dust.
At alluvial mines, they applied their
hydraulic miningHydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that employs water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. Previously, the use of a large volume of water had been developed by the Romans to remove overburden and then gold-bearing debris as in Las Médulas of Spain, and Dolaucothi in...
methods on a vast scale, such as
Las MedulasLas Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in the region of El Bierzo , used to be the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire...
in north-west Spain. Traces of tanks and aqueducts can be found at many other early Roman mines. The methods are described in great detail by
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
in his
Naturalis HistoriaNaturalis Historia is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77-79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
. He also described deep mining underground, and mentions the need to dewater the workings using
reverse overshot water-wheelFrequently used in mines and probably elsewhere , the reverse overshot water wheel was a Roman innovation to help remove water from the lowest levels of underground workings. It is described by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura published circa 25 BC...
s, and actual examples have been found in many Roman mines exposed during later mining attempts. The copper mines at
Rio TintoRio Tinto may refer to:*Rio Tinto Group, a multinational mining company** Rio Tinto Alcan, the mining company's aluminum division** Rio Tinto Stadium, a soccer stadium in Sandy, Utah, USA sponsored by the above company...
were one source of such artifacts, where a set of 16 was found in the 1920s. They also used Archimedean screws to remove water in a similar way.
Military engineering
Engineering was also institutionally ingrained in the Roman military, who constructed forts, camps, bridges, roads, ramps, pallisades, and siege equipment amongst others. One of the most notable examples of military bridge-building in the Roman Empire was Julius Caesar's bridge over the Rhine River. This bridge was completed in only ten days by a dedicated team of engineers. Their exploits in the Dacian wars under
TrajanMarcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from A. D. 98 until his death in A. D. 117...
in the early 2nd century AD are recorded on
Trajan's columnTrajan's Column is a monument in Rome raised in honour of the Roman emperor Trajan and probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum...
in Rome. The army was also closely involved in
gold miningGold mining consists of the processes and techniques employed in the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques by which gold may be extracted from the Earth.-Panning:...
and probably built the extensive complex of
leatA leat is the name, common in the south and west of England and Wales, for an artificial watercourse, or aqueduct, supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond...
s and
cisternA cistern is a receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Often cisterns are built to catch and store rainwater...
s at the Roman gold mine of Dolaucothi in
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
shortly after conquest of the region in 75 AD.