The Importance Of Human Physical Strength In The Ancient World

Even when the plain was safely reached, difficulties still abounded. Shifting a total of 22,000 tons of marble across ten miles of level plain to the Acropolis proved a major operation itself. These drums, blocks, and architraves were so enormously heavy that special methods of transport had to be devised for them, and the existing road had to be rebuilt so that it was strong enough to support their weight. Traffic was restricted to the dry summer months for fear that the blocks would bog down in the mud, and the largest blocks of all seem to have baffled the wagonmakers. Axles had to be inserted directly into their end sockets, and these were then equipped with wheels no less than twelve feet in diameter. The whole was fitted to a frame of four-inch timbers and drawn by up to thirty teams of oxen. Shifting a block of marble from the quarry to the Acropolis took at least two days and

Strength was not just physically being strong but emotionally being able to keep themselves together. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet had to try and keep herself together when she knew that Romeo was going to be banished after he killed her cousin Tybalt. She was being as strong as she could before she went to Friar Laurence for advice. After she left the church she knew that she was going to have to be strong and lie to her family about her marriage with Paris and that it was not going to happen. After she had taken the poison and Romeo found her in the tomb he had to try and be strong as well, but he just could not live without her, so he killed himself to be with her. Strength is also a theme for the book The Odyssey. Odysseus left his whole family behind when he went to war. His mother could not deal with the fact that he might have been killed in the war so she tried to be strong but she later committed suicide. Penelope also was strong and raised her child while her husband was gone to war and lived everyday as if her husband was still alive. Telemachus was pretty strong too because he had no father to tell him how to be a man, all he had was the men that were trying to marry his mother. Strength was a big part of both books. In real life being strong is important. Not only in a relationship, but in any matter. If your parents are going through a divorce, that could also be an example of you being strong. Strength is more than just physical strength, it is also

Stephen G. Miller, the author of Ancient Greek Athletics and many other academic writings lived a very astounding life. Miller spent a great portion of his life traveling between the United States and Greece. He went to school to become an archaeologist and afterwards became a professor at Berkeley and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Miller was driven by Plato’s love for his work; however, he faced a minor setback when he realized Plato’s language was beyond what he could understand. He then decided to change his studies to archaeology because of his new-found love for amazing indoor and outdoor work. Miller had a unique perspective on ancient Olympic games because he directed excavations for multiple years at one of the Panhellenic sanctuary sites. He has written dozens of academic books along with children’s books, therefore I was excited to read this authors rendition of the earliest Olympic Games.

     In addition, to the Roman government, the modern world has been influenced by Roman architecture as well. In every country and every state these days you will find roads or some type of paved road system. This derived from early Roman architectures. The Romans were the first to set up a highly advanced concrete road system that would aide in traveling. Although not as sophisticated as today's roads, the concrete used was not much different from what is used today. In fact the Roman constructed roads are still intact today. Along with road

They built great roads that were all connected and some are even still being walked on. All

Some evidence to prove this is, "The clay was made into bricks and tiles in factories near Arretium. The clay, dug out of large pits in the ground, was formed into standard shapes and sizes using wooden molds." A reason for having to be intelligent and having to have physical strength is, they need skilled workers to cut, polish, and carve the stone. If they weren't that smart or unskilled they would lift huge block from the ground which required both strength and intelligence. The text states that, "The skilled laborers cut, polished, or carved inscriptions in the stone. The unskilled workers seperated and lifted the huge blocks from Earth. The stone was usually cut with a saw. When the stone was hard, the blade used in the saw had no teeth; sand and steel fillings were placed under the blade and the back-and-forth motion of the saw ground away from the stone." So with that said it was very important to have physical strength and to have intelligence because of those reasons. The way we build today still uses both of those ideas just a little bit less since we have tools to help

These technological achievements credited to the Romans were rather only improvements made by the Romans to inventions previously discovered by earlier societies. Concrete is the only invention that can solely be credited to the Romans. As stated earlier the remains of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius were discovered by Romans, as well as the idea of mixing these remains with water. Aside from concrete, all technological achievements credited to the Romans were only improvements on ideas borrowed from others (Boatwright). Roads can be dated back to Mesopotamia. The earliest roads served the sole purpose of allowing wagons and chariots to easily pass through cities. Some were built from brick and asphalt or limestone slabs, but it is not until the Roman improvement to make roads deeper and more durable that roads received national recognition. Although early societies in Mesopotamia had created roads long before the Romans, the Romans borrowed this technology and improved it to increase the productivity of their own expansion (Roads). India is known to have some of the

In document 8, the “flowing aqueducts” of the Roman Empire greatly increased the ability for people to live in very condensed areas, and therefore making the empire more efficient by allowing more people to live in smaller areas. The elected officials in each respected empire noted that, because of the technological advances, the empress benefited. Thus showing that the ideas of man to invent and reinvent are not always broken causes. Document 6 states that, the romans had very advanced roads built, roads built to last thousands of years. “For the roads were built to carry straight through the country without wavering and were paved with quarried stone and made solid by tightly packed sand.” This quote shows that, because of how technologically advanced the Romans were, they were able to build these roads, roads that still last

It all started in the invasion of Britain; the Roman army was forced into using old grass and mud track trails the Britons created, Roman Roads describes the roads as “Track ways that were sometimes thousands of years old and often went up and down hills for reasons that nobody could remember.” To add, the Roman legions needed new roads to move quicker to areas of trouble in Britain to keep them under control, and Roman generals also needed better roads to relay orders from soldiers stationed as far away as Hadrian’s wall. Good roads meant better trade on land making Rome and it’s emperor richer from taxes. Roman soldiers were given the task of planning and building roads, Roman Roads implies that “Roads did not always run perfectly straight, and they sometimes zig-zagged up hills and avoided obstacles, but the long stretches of roman roads that ran straight were the ones they remember today. These roman roads were so straight due to an instrument called the Groma, a pair of boards stuck together in a cross-shaped figure. Which had lines with weights hung from each corner to get a straight line by lining the weights with a pole a hundred meters away. They then dug ditches from each side to take the role of the drains, the earth from the ditches would be piled into the center and rammed down into a flat shape. Stones were then gathered and laid down into multiple layers as the means

The roads ended up reaching all the way to Modern Day Egypt and Northwestern Europe. Document 4a explains Rome’s need for good roads. “Roads meant that orders, troops, and supplies could be sent quickly throughout the empire.” Rome was able to be quick and efficient in war because they chose to develop their geography to their advantage. Document 4b shows the intelligent way. Romans built their roads. They made three layers: large stones, small stones, and cobble, making it curved, with ditches on either side for drainage, to prevent

The very first roadway that Rome created was by way of military campaign. The Romans fought with the Samnites for over 50 years, during this time they had to continuously adapt and critique their army style and skills. The Samnites at one point during these years was joined by the Etruscans and the Gauls. Rome’s only way out was to form colonies with in the south . Yet most of the land was very rough terrain. The Romans at that point, by order of Appius Claudius Caecus in 312BCE constructed the Via Appia; this roadway originally ran southeast from

These roads were so well built that some of them are still in use by modern travelers. Romans knew that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and built their roads incredibly straight, stretching for miles without a single turn. The use of stone in building roads enabled people to travel during inclement weather while dirt roads may remain too muddy to travel upon for many days after a hard rain. The Ancient Romans also knew of a road building technique that escapes the builders of modern roads in states such as Florida. This technique is known as crowning, this involves making the center of the roads higher than the sides, with a gradual slope to allow water to run off the sides instead of collecting in the middle. By the time the great Roman Empire fell, the Roman Army had built roads connecting all of their empire to Rome.

In ancient Rome, architecture and engineering were highly regarded. It contributed much to Rome’s development, power, as well as the longevity of such an immense and substantial empire. Architecture displayed an immense amount of workmanship as well as innovation. This is seen through Rome engineers as they created the concept of concrete, constructed the famous Roman aqueducts, and the luxurious Roman baths. Roman’s were clearly superior engineers compared to their competitors because Roman engineers developed new and innovative concepts that were never introduced before, therefore contributing to the success of the Roman Empire.

The Romans were extraordinary builders and professional civil engineers, and their flourishing civilization formed developments in technology, culture and architecture that endured for centuries. Ancient Rome had several qualities that made their civilization successful but most importantly through the advancements of technology and innovations that flourished throughout the ages that are still used in today’s society. The legacy lives through the inventions of the aqueducts, concrete, newspapers, battlefield surgery, bound books, roads and highways, roman arches, and the twelve tables. All of these inventions and innovations served as their own individual purpose that made the civilization boundless which is why I interested in this research topic.

Following Poliakoff’s introduction to the ancient combat sports, he proceeds to provide a basic outline to the world of ancient combat sports in a series of sections within the chapter, including: The definition of a ‘combat sport’ and its relation to recreation and training; similarities amongst combat sports, training methods and common practise; the premise of athletic festivals, and the organization of said competition.