2. Objectives
• Know and understand the contributions Rome made to
Western culture.
• Artistic
• Legal
• Architectural
• Language
• Technology/engineering
3. Classical civilization
• Greco-Roman culture or the mix of Greek, Hellenistic,
and Roman influences.
• Bear in mind that the Roman Empire spanned a wide
expanse of territory and incorporated a number of
cultures. Just as Roman culture influences them, they
influence Rome and a whole new mix comes out.
4. Fine arts
• Greek sculpture emphasized the ideal human form.
Roman sculpture presented more realistic
representations of people. The Romans were
practically-minded, after all.
23. What Rome gave us
• Language
• Became the basis for the Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian, Romanian, and French languages – the
Romance languages.
• Started off as just bad Latin, but then established
themselves as separate languages.
24.
25. • Architecture
• Many important buildings, like government
buildings, use neo-Classical architecture. Like say,
the U.S. Capitol Building.
The
columns,
the dome,
the arches.
26. • The Romans were also big on the arch.
• It’s an extremely efficient weight-bearing
structure.
• You see them a lot in their aqueducts, for
example.
27. • The aqueducts were used to supply Rome with
water and were engineering marvels.
• They supplied Rome with nearly 300 million
gallons of water a day. That’s for a population of
just 1 million. That makes for about 300 gallons
of water per day per person.
36. • The roads and road system were also engineering
marvels, but we’ve already talked about them.
37. • Law
• Big contribution, mainly the rights of individuals.
• Rights under the law.
• Innocent until proven guilty.
• Burden of proof on accuser.
• Punishment for actions.
• The legal system also became basis of most Western
countries’ legal systems.
