Ancient Roman Inventions

Ancient Roman Inventions is a difficult area to define and study. What do we mean by “Ancient Roman” and what is an “Invention”?

• “Roman” includes people of many different nations under Roman rule. The timespan is also surprising: In the broadest sense Roman civilisation lasted > 2000 years!
• “Ancient Roman Invention” can spread to “founding”, “innovating” and “discovery”. Beyond that, a successful invention relies on social adoption and utilisation of it. Who discovered something is the subject of great legal battles even today.

Ancient Rome definitely provided the environment for the spreading and adoption of great ideas. Understanding why some great inventions never made it big in ancient Rome helps us understand what is needed to successfully “innovate” today.

A long list of Roman inventions is provided below. Many inventions are well known like “roads” and “aqueducts” others are surprising like “scissors”.

The Romans loved practical applications. For example, they developed different ways of mining and extracting metals, or of running large-scale farms to mass-produce corn. The Romans even invented social welfare!

Ancient Roman Inventions: Introduction

The study of Ancient Roman Inventions is a broad subject of difficult definition: Firstly, what we consider to be Ancient Roman covers over 1000 years time span. A period beginning under influence of the Etruscans and, if we consider the Roman Empire of the East, ending at the Rennaissance.

Secondly, the Roman world eventually covered a huge geographical area.

Thirdly, Roman civilisation was multicultural, so that many important roles and activity in Roman society, Roman jobs and the innovations which ensued were often undertaken by slaves, liberti and clients (free foreigners). These people contributed their personal culture and traditional knowledge to the general melting pot. This is not too different from the modern day world!

A good number of ancient “Roman” inventions were actually innovations thought up and developed by persons of many different cultures.  Greeks, Jews or Egyptians, to name a few, absorbed into or enabled to pursue their work under Roman dominion. We should remember that these people could actually be fully fledged Roman citizens “Civis” without necessarily being of Italic origin. St Paul is a famous example.

The social and cultural stability coupled with the concentration of financial wealth brought about by Roman dominion created ideal surroundings for progress and innovation in a huge variety of vocational areas. A particularly singular example of the influence of diverse cultures and absorption by Rome of their inventions and knowledge was the marvelous city of Alexandria.

Another intriguing example of the benefits of the coming together of different cultures is the report we have from the Greek Athenaeus of Naucratis who worked in Egypt around the 3rd century AD, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He tells us that in the 6th century BC the ancient southern Italian city of Sybaris had the first examples of patents for recipe inventions (Sybaris was a Greek colony).

Ancient Roman inventions: From local customs to international trade

Much Roman innovation was actually mass popularisation of what had hitherto been local customs. The Pax Romana provided a fertile ground for ideas and commerce to spread. For example, wooden barrels were actually invented by the Gauls, now France. The huge geographical reach of Roman roads and trade routes allowed local goods and ideas to spread right across the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, the use of barrels for Roman transportation of goods such as Roman wine was a relatively late development in the empire where amphoras remained popular for an extremely long time.

Certainly, the Romans were extremely practical and relatively uninterested in abstract thought such as pure mathematics or physics. Roman “inventions” and technical advances were by and large practical and utilitarian in nature: at odds with Greek attitude which tended to denigrate menial/practical work. We therefore find significant innovations in engineering and materials technology like public buildings, roads, hydraulics, glass, cement and metal production.

In an artistic and architectural context, history repeated itself during the Renaissance, spurred by the Counter-Reformation: The church’s demand for art (demands of art) coupled with a concentration of wealth, attracted the best and most innovative artists of the time and produced the movement commonly referred to as the “Baroque“. Similar circumstances are to be found today in various countries and cities of the world, such as London or New York for example. So too we can imagine much the same happening in ancient Rome when Greek art and artists from all over the Mediterranean basin found themselves brought together to city’s such as Rome or Pompeii to work on Roman art.

So we can see that Roman hegemony, wealth and the pax romana enabled innovation to proliferate and spread, but only to a degree: the social impact was always first and foremost in the minds of Roman rulers and the potentially negative socio-economic effects of revolutionary mechanisation were a frequent break.

A list of ancient Roman inventions or at least significant developments of existing technologies and ideas is given further below. To get a better context of roman inventions it is worth having a quick look at ancient roman technology and innovation in ancient Rome as well as the ancient Roman economy.

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A list of ancient Roman inventions

Having set the background and gained a glimpse of just how thorny the subject could be it seems easiest to change tack and take the loosest of definitions. Listing some of the many things for which Ancient Rome might justly be remembered for….in no particular order:

• 

  Ancient Roman Inventions such as advanced roads and road networks are well known. There are countless instances of “the Old Roman Road” across the UK. Equally common though perhaps less well known example of Roman infrastructure are  the numerous cases of cities including the word “chester”, a derivative of ‘castrum’ meaning Castle in Latin. A simple scratch of the surface of our every day reality shows ancient Roman innovation present in areas such as Manufacturing, materials science, engineering, medicine, pharmaceuticals, construction, law and so on.

 

Ancient Roman Inventions: General sciences, Manufacturing and Materials science

• Roman numerals – essentially constructed around fingers on the hand: I, II, III, IV, V and X are 1,2,3,4,5 and 10. the V stands for an open hand of fingers whilst the X (10) is two open hands back to back. Not very good for pure mathematics but perfectly ok for counting up your goods as they got stacked up in the warehouse.
• The Romans invented hydraulic mining, or at least it’s earliest form known as ground sluicing. They diverted rivers in order to erode and dig the ground in surface mines to quarry materials like gold at sites in Wales (Britain) and Spain.

• Innovations in metal smelting such as the crucibles employed, particularly for the process of cementation where a low melting point metal is vapourised and alloyed with annother such as in the production of Brass. Such a technique might have been used for fine glassware which was doped with traces metals such as gold to change its colour behaviour with light.
• Plywood? Ancient Roman shields were extremely light and resistant due to being made of multiple cross-grained layers of wood.

• Huge numbers of instruments and tools for engineering, construction and measurement. The Romans were, after all, excellent engineers. For example you could purchase your access to water supply for set hours of the day or set quantities of water, which were dutifully metered and billed, pretty much as you would today, albeit with slighty different technology!.
• Distillation process: first century AD, actually developed by Greeks living in Romanised Alexandria. The first description of distilled water dates back to around 200AD by Alexander of Aphrodisias. They never got round to using it on petroleum though…
• Mass produced blown glass and sheet glass as used for windows. Glass wasn’t invented or discovered in Rome although the variety of uses and production techniques of ancient Roman glass greatly evolved thanks to the market economy and open trade across the Roman empire. A particularly interesting example of this is mould blown glass which appears to have been introduced to Rome and “took off” during the reign of Emperor Tiberius – during this time various authors suggest that a particularly “flexible” type of glass “vitrum flexile” was invented which, according to Pliny NH Bk36.195 he attempted to repress because of the replacement effect it was having on more traditional luxury metal vessels and indeed Tiberius had the workshop of the inventor destroyed.

Ancient Roman Inventions in society and everyday life

• The first census of population and belongings (so they could tax them). This was in the hands of a public magistrate called the Censor.
• Roman Law and government: clearly not invented by the Romans, but certainly perfected to such a degree that Roman law is still at the base of many modern legal systems. You’d be amazed at how advanced their marital and divorce legislation, “ius connubii” was!
• Brides dressed in white being carried over the threshold of their new home. Ancient Roman Weddings
• Cypress trees have been associated with cemeteries and funerals since Roman times
• Various unfriendly forms of torture and killing: such as Crucifixion for non-Romans or Decimation for poorly performing military units. Not to mention many bizarre capital punishments
• Our calendar, thanks to Julius Caesar (who used “foreign” astronomers from Roman dominions to get it right). January was after the two faced god Janus. February was after “Februa” the whips used in a popular festivity held in February. March is for the god Mars (beginning of the war season in fact) and so on. July and August are quite interesting: July was renamed in honour of Julius Caesar and August renamed in honour of Emperor Augustus. September used to be the seventh month way back before the Julian calendar (Septem) October was the eigth, November the ninth, december the tenth. When they shifted to a twelve month calendar based on the Solar cycle rather than the lunar one they simply added the two month without actually changing the old numbered names so the twelfth month was actually called “tenth” and it still is today!
• Our days of the week too: Monday is the day of the Moon, Sunday they Sun, Saturday is for the god Saturn. For the other days of the week we have to look to Latin languages eg in Italian: Tuesday is Martedi’ (Mars day), Wednesdays is Mercoledi’ (Mercury day), Thursday Giovedi’ is Jove or Jupiter and Friday (Venerdi’) is Venus day. Perhaps this is the most ubiquitous of ancient Roman inventions!
• Some of the Western world’s religious festivities: The Saturnalia were celebrated until the 25th of December and involved an exchange of gifts. Christ and the god Mithras were both born on the 25th. It is not surprising that several old Roman feasts and festivities were absorbed into the Christian religion which eventually prevailed and set many of our modern festivities. Incidentally the 25th is when the days start getting longer again and so it isn’t surprising that a pastoral society should regard it highly from the earliest of times.

• Medical and Surgical tools(mainly thanks to the Greeks actually but hugely developed as a consequence of the needs generated by Gladiatorial games and continuous war campaigns)

• Caesareans – sounds like Caesar doesn’t it? Caesareans were often used to save the baby if the mother died during childbirth. The connection with Julius is unclear.
• A huge variety of commercialised creams, lipsticks and cosmetics
• Candles – sticks of animal fat which the legionaries could even eat in times of starvation.
• Holidays and leisure travel – again, don’t know that you can actually say that they were Roman inventions, but certainly the relative safety and wellbeing generated during the heyday of Roman civilisation meant that holidays and foreign travel became extremely popular. The Mediterranean was known as a Roman pond and sea routes across it became extremely secure and frequent (once Pompey the Great had rid the seas of Pirates).
• Extravagant Cookery: their taste was pretty exotic. The wealth and luxury couldn’t go without weird and wonderful dishes, many of which live on thanks to books such as Apicius’ “De Re Coquinaria”.

Ancient Roman inventions in Clothing

• Socks, especially men’s socks were an item of Roman clothing– long ones for the military in cold northern countries, but also for ancient Roman women or actors of comedy. The latter two were known as “soccus“. Soccus were of wool or Egyptian cotton either natural color or bleached, reaching up to the knee or calf.

• shoe soles made of cork
• Different shoe shapes for left and right foot. Read about ancient Roman shoes.
• Bikinis (see a famous mosaic from sicily showing young ladies in bikini)
• Umbrellas for both sun and rain
• Hand mangle for ironing – a flat metal paddle or mallet to hit the roman clothes, removing creases by beating. The “Prelum” was like a wine press with two plates pressed together by a turnscrew.
• Scissors
• Magnifying glass: The ancient Romans did not invent the lens. However the strongest suggestion of its use as a magnifying glass was found at Pompeii in the house of a stone engraver. Pliny makes reference to Nero using a green stone as a lens to watch the Gladiators in his book Natural History (Pliny, HN 37.60, 200) Perhaps Nero was short-sighted?

• Postal system: Plenty of correspondence has been found. Even including at Hadrian’s wall for example, not to mention the letters of famous authors such as Pliny the younger.

• Gladiatorial games and chariot races were inherited from the Etruscans (a number of the first kings of Rome were Etruscans in fact).

• Roman chariot races are amongst the most memorable ancient Roman inventions. Gladiatorial games were actually inherited, popularised and “improved upon” from their Etruscan neighbours.
• Unruly supporters and hooliganism at the stadiums – for example the riot at Pompeii’s amphitheatre between the Pompeian and Capuan supporters. This results in various deaths and eventual ten year banning of public games in Pompeii’s amphitheatre by Nero. Sounds quite modern!
• Rampant inflation: Not sure it was only Roman but they certainly found out what it meant! The huge size of the ancient Roman economy, single currency and population concentration all contributed to making inflation a feature of the economy, very much as we know nowadays.
• Modern political propaganda. Unlikely that anyone could invent it, but the Romans certainly took it to the greatest heights!

Ancient Roman Inventions: Military

Numerous inventions and innovations in ancient Rome actually began within the army. Roman armour and weaponry was a flourish of innovation. Often including ideas picked up elsewhere other times very Roman in nature.

• Possibly the first professional army. Thanks to Marius.
• Military engineering and war machines of all sorts and shapes such as the Ballista.
• Pre-fabricated construction techniques: military camps, not unlike small villages, were essentially pre-fabricated and built or taken down in amazingly short times. Caesar’s bridge over the Rhine was built from scratch in a matter of days.
• The “crow” was a sort of large hook built onto the front of war ships. Designed to lower and latch onto enemy warships to allow soldiers to cross over to the enemy vessels.
• We have already mentioned the ply-wood technology in shields.
• The unusual “pilum” was a lance with a very fine neck after the spear’s point so that once embedded in enemy shields or armour it would bend or even break to encumber the hit enemy.
• Undoubtedly great advances in military strategy and “art of war”. For example the various formations which the soldiers were trained to take, enabling different types of combat.
• A modern example of the Roman military savoir-faire is to be found in modern police crowd-control sometimes seen on the news.

Ancient Roman Inventions: Infrastructure, Construction and Civil Engineering:

• The grid structure of many cities, such as Barcelona or Paris is an echo of their past as Roman military settlements.
• Roman cities had pavements and pedestrianised areas. In fact, the Via Sacra allegedly had traffic as bad as today’s – could we say they invented road rage too?
• Large scale sewers (so much so that parts of the ancient Roman sewers of Rome are still functional.
• Street lighting (only towards the end of the empire) – the reference to check out is Ammianus Marcellinus, book 14.
• Fast curing water proof cement – hugely important discovery which allowed cement to cure and harden in short times and even under water. The ancient Romans realised that adding pozzolanic earth from volcanic regions (Eg Pozzuoli near Naples) to traditional mortar allowed a water proof and extremely solid mix. This could be used to waterproof the interior of aqueduct tunnels or extend the potentials of Roman architecture with important buildings and domes such as the Pantheon.

• Reinforced concrete – they introduced metal bars into the concrete in order to gain greater strength.

• Bronze valves for water control
• More efficient water pumps of different types for different applications such as on board ships or within mines and excavation.
• The standard width of our modern roads and tunnels is based on that of ancient Rome (there was a standard width for cart wheels, essentially based on the need of placing two horses side by side). The worn ruts in the roads made it virtually impossible to use any other measure.
• Showers (not to mentions their development of great public buildings such as spas and heated pools, gymnasiums, public libraries etc)
• Public toilets. Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on using the toilets and on the urine (used for cleaning of garments thanks to the ammonia in it).
• Triumphal arches
• Arches were employed to great effect in buildings such as the Pantheon, Nero’s domus aurea and the Christian basilicas (triumphal arch brought inside).
• Aqueducts (actually they learned much about structures from the Estruscans, but developed it to perfection)
• Milestones along the road network

Ancient Roman inventions in Housing

• Lock and keys for doors – many found in the remains of ancient Roman cities are pretty similar to modern day ones. Not necessarily invented by a Roman of course but in widespread use thanks to them nonetheless.
• Ambient heating (hot air was circulated underneath floors of houses).
• Apartment blocks – called “insula”. These are really only found in cities where both land costs and population concentration were high as in Rome and Ostia. Pompeii, for example, had no apartment blocks and all buildings were one or two floors high at the most.
• Firemen service & local policing. These are said to have started during the reign of Augustus.
• Fire regulations: After the great fire of Rome, Nero implemented regulations for city planning and construction to reduce the potential for rampant fires.
• Roman architecture afforded great opportunity for architectural advances: A unique synthesis of architecture, engineering, mosaics, paintings and symbolism to convey a powerful, almost mystical, personal experience of inside-out, mundane-divine which was put to use in political-propagandistic buildings at first and then Christian religious needs later. 

Ancient Roman Inventions: Literature and Arts

• Shorthand and symbols such as “&” or abbreviations such as “etc.”, “NB”, “PS” and many others.
• A huge number of words. Eg Curriculum Vitae, Senator (from Senex – old wise guy), Republic, Plebeian, Prefect, President, Legal, Penal, Judge, Judicial and so on and so on.
• The first public newspaper was the “Acta Diurna” published every day in the Roman forum and stuck on walls so that Roman citizens could know what was going on in the Senate.
• Not much in music except a variety of trumpets for military parades. Shame we can’t hear any of it as surely they would have been a very Roman taste in music or at least evolution of it.
• Satire: The Greeks are generally regarded as the inventors of modern literature and theatre. The Roman contribution was the rather less intellectual but equally powerful “Satire“. Still popular today. In fact, the name Satire is derived from a Roman dish called “Satura” which was a sort of minestrone soup full of just about anything.

How’s that for a start? Ancient Roman Inventions: Bibliography and further references