The Roman Empire And Modern Technology

The Han and Roman people were two different societies during the classical period. The documents highlighted Han and Roman attitudes towards technology. The Han documents displayed excerpts from it’s people that explain how the Han people relied on technology daily and respected the inventors of the technology. The Roman documents portrayed the Romans weak reliance on technology, however they do emphasize a beauty to the aesthetic side of technology. Han China’s attitude towards industrial as well as labor driven technology was much more open and appreciative than Rome’s attitude. Rome’s attitude was influenced by their more social class-driven society, which causes more negative attitudes towards labor driven technology.

The Hans and Romans understood the importance of technology, but unlike the Hans, the Romans viewed anyone who worked with tools or with their hands to be a person of lowly status. The Romans only showed appreciation for technologies that could hold some benefit for the upper-class. The upper-class Romans thought that craftsmen, people who made a living out of making tools, was hardly an occupation that deserved any respect. The Hans appreciated the use of tools in their labor and how it could help the people. The Hans showed a great appreciation of their technological advancements, and its effect on society.

The Roman Empire is known as one of the strongest empires in history, due to their advanced technology, strong military leaders, and republican government. As the empire started to expand, so did their power. However, after years have gone by, the Roman Empire started to fall. Their fall may have been caused by political reason, such as the empire being just too much to handle, Diocletian splitting the territory in half, and their government corruption.

The Han and Roman worlds were two of the largest and most complex early empires composed of different cultures, political systems, languages, beliefs, and ways of living. However, they had a few similarities; one of which is the introduction of various technologies during the first and second millennium. The Han in China and Romans in the Mediterranean experienced a time period of expansion in which they began to develop technology such as metallurgy and water systems to aid in military conquests and practical purposes. Although both Han and Roman had definite appreciation towards technology, the Han attitude towards technology was more glorifying in its effectiveness and utility; while the roman attitude was less glorifying as they focused on technology to display their civilizations advancements, while they neglected to glorify those who worked with tools. Han’s attitude towards technology was appreciative, glorified technology when its is supported by the government, and believed technology is essential for the empire. The Roman attitude includes inferiority of tools, aestheticism as main use of technology, and less glorification and importance on technology.

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

The Roman Empire thrived for many generations until the influence of both people of Rome and those outside Rome. Rome had been an advanced society with stable government, large cities, beautiful architecture, and advanced technology. Unfortunately it did not last forever and the fall affected Western Europe who was greatly influenced by Rome. Western Europe went from a high functioning society to a land of may manors. The causes of Rome's fall varied from invasions, overgrowth, and poor leaders.

The Roman Empire was, overall, an immensely successful and innovative empire; this success derived from the implementation of the Christianity religion, spreading of Romanization so that Roman subjects were united and had Roman rights, and the economical and technological advancements that flourished under the period of Pax Romana. While these benefited the Roman Empire greatly and made Rome a prosperous civilization, Rome gradually weakened and, conclusively, fell. The eventual and definite decline of Rome was caused by excessive territorial expansion, economic issues, and foreign invasions.

The Roman’s view of technology is more pessimistic than the Hans. Their attitude shows very little concern to how the common people benefit from the invention of technologies. Especially, Cicero refers the craftsmen as “vulgar” (Doc 2). This shows that they don’t respect any inventions whatsoever because the upper-class Roman does not care about those inventions. As long as they don’t benefit the upper class then they would think it is not necessary for the society. Seneca repeated this saying that the minds of whoever invented hammers or tongs were “not great or elevated” (Doc 5). This explains why the Romans concentrated more on mathematics and science than inventing technologies. Although Plutarch shows more appreciation towards technology than other Romans, stating that the roads were built with great pride. He said, “stones on either side of the road at lesser intervals so that it would be easier for those who had horses to mount them” (Doc 4). This does not show any benefit for the common or

Technology’s influence on infrastructure had a positive effect on the population. According to a Han Government official of the 2nd century BCE, Han china had water conversion offices that helped control the water supply for cities, rationing out water so they had a steady supply of water throughout the year. (Document 1) Rome’s equivalent was aqueducts, which according to Frontinus, Roman general, governor of Britain, and water commissioner for the city

Thesis: Although the many advancements in health and medicine greatly contributed to the growth of the Roman Empire, the advancements in construction and architecture played a larger role in the growth of the Roman Empire

Romans found new societal and technological innovations which led their empire to be a sustainable society. These innovations helped the Roman Empire to be successful and peaceful. They aided in making everyone content, including the conquered and prevented wars from breaking out within the empire. Technological innovations helped the citizens live a comfortable and healthy life. New innovations included new beneficial laws.

It is said that Rome was not built in a day. True. It took ambition, lust, murder and the unrivalled power of technology to make the Roman Empire span across three continents and many centuries. While the contributions of ambition, conquest and other political and militaristic factors remain important for the Roman Republic to transform into an Empire, none of this could have been possible without the immense contribution of engineering and technology. In this essay, we shall look into three engineering feats that I believe were crucial in building the Roman Empire. We shall be making use of the video “Rome: Engineering an Empire” as an aid towards the

The ancient Romans were skilled engineers and have left lasting contributions in this field. The Romans built a great network of roads connecting cities throughout their empire. They also built aqueducts and bridges using arches for support. The Roman arch design was by far the most important innovation of their time. The arch, however, would have been useless without the discovery of concrete. The Romans had many other such discoveries that would make their engineering skills known throughout the world.

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.