Roman Engineering and Legacy

罗马的工程与遗产 · Ancient Rome, part 2

All roads lead to Rome

• Romans built tens of thousands of kilometers of stone-paved roads.
• Roads were straight where possible, with a curved top so rain ran off.
• A legionlegion 军团A large unit of the Roman army, about 5,000 soldiers.History Vocab ↗ could march fast, and traders and letters moved across the empireempire 帝国Many lands and peoples ruled by one government.History Vocab ↗.

The Via Appia, a Roman road started in 312 BC. You can still walk on it.

“All roads lead to Rome” is still a saying in many languages, meaning “there are many ways to reach the same goal”. Ask: is there a similar saying in Chinese?

Water from the hills: the aqueduct

An aqueductaqueduct 引水渠A channel or bridge that carries water to a city.History Vocab ↗ has no pumps. The channel slopes gently downhill the whole way, so gravity moves the water.

The Pont du Gard in France carried water about 50 km to the city of Nîmes and still stands today. You’ll design your own aqueduct on the challenge sheet.

Concrete and the Colosseum

• Romans made strong concrete with volcanic ash.
• With it they built domes, harbors and arenas.
• The ColosseumColosseum 罗马斗兽场A huge stone arena in Rome for games and shows.History Vocab ↗ held about 50,000 people.
• Crowds watched a gladiatorgladiator 角斗士A trained fighter who fought in an arena to entertain crowds.History Vocab ↗ fight there.

The Colosseum today. Earthquakes and stone robbers took part of its outer wall.

The forum

• Every Roman town had a forumforum 古罗马广场The main public square of a Roman town.History Vocab ↗: the main square.
• People shopped, heard news, went to court and worshipped there.
• In Rome, the senate met in a building on the Forum.

Words and numbers

LatinLatin 拉丁语The language of the ancient Romans.History Vocab ↗ became Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian. English borrowed thousands of Latin words:

• aqua (water) → aquarium, aqueduct
• civis (citizen) → city, civil

Roman numeralsRoman numerals 罗马数字Letters used as numbers: I, V, X, L, C, D, M.History Vocab ↗

I	V	X	L	C	D	M
1	5	10	50	100	500	1000

XII = 10 + 1 + 1 = 12 · IV = 5 − 1 = 4

Try it

What number is XIV?

X = 10, then IV = 4 (I before V subtracts), so 14.

The end of the western empire

• The empireempire 帝国Many lands and peoples ruled by one government.History Vocab ↗ grew too big to defend and to run.
• In AD 476, the last emperor in the west was removed.
• The eastern half, with its capital at Constantinople, lasted almost 1,000 years more, until 1453.

Exit ticket

How well can you explain how an aqueduct works?

Picture credits

• Title: the Pont du Gard, photo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Via Appia: photo by Nicolò Musmeci, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Colosseum: photo by Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Drawings: original, made for this course. Full list: images/CREDITS.md.