Ancient Roman Inventions

Roman Numerals have been in use for much longer than our current numbering system. In fact, they were used by Europeans for nearly 1800 years! As the Romans conquered Europe, they began using Roman Numerals as their counting system. After decades under Roman control, the numbering system stuck and was used in Europe until around 1300 AD. The number one in Roman Numerals is “I” because it looks like one ﬁnger when you hold it up. The number ﬁve is shown as the letter “V” because when you hold up ﬁve ﬁngers on one hand, the thumb and little ﬁnger form the shape “V.”

When digging around the site at Pompeii, the city destroyed by lava and ash from Mount Vesuvius, researchers were shocked to ﬁnd surgical tools buried in the ashes. Hooks, probes, bone drills, and bone saws were just some of the tools found at the site. From the ashes, researchers also found that physicians would carry their tools in a wooden box and would clean their tools by boiling them in water—not the best way to keep surgery tools clean, but it was the best method the Romans had at the time.

As the Roman Empire grew, so did the number of people living it. Land slowly became harder to ﬁnd, so to ﬁx the problem Roman engineers created insula, or apartments as we know them today. These brick buildings could be up to ﬁve stories high and used the street level ﬂoor as a place where artisans could sell their goods or set up their workshops. Most of the lower class lived in the insula while the upper class lived in the domus, or private residence. Insula had wooden or concrete balconies to let light and fresh air into the home.

We have the pleasure of enjoying many of ancient Rome’s famous structures because of one very important invention: concrete. First used over 2,000 years ago, Roman concrete is a bit different than the concrete used today, but has the same lasting effect thanks to some of the key ingredients. Concrete was used all over the Medditerranean for everything from buildings to bridges, and archways to aqueducts. Roman concrete was even durable in seawater, helping to create large and elaborate harbors, piers, and public baths.

It might not seem like an impressive invention to create a road, but the Romans were the ﬁrst to build a complex system of roads, many of which are still in use today! Roman roads were made using dirt, gravel, and bricks made of volcanic lava. The engineers made sure that the roads were extremely straight and sloped so that the roads did not become ﬂooded during the rain. Stone road markers were used to help travelers know where they were going and post houses were set along the roads to help the ﬂow of information from one city or town to the next.

Our modern calendar, called the Gregorian calendar, is based off the calendar system created by Julius Caesar nearly 2,000 years ago. Before the Julian calendar, the Roman calendar was based off the cycles of the moon. Caesar decided that the year should be based off the movement of the sun. He changed the number of days in the year from 355 to 365 and included the 12 months. The system was almost perfect, but was incorrect by 11 minutes and threw the calendar off each year. The Gregorian calendar was created to add in a leap year, which ﬁxed the problem and gave us the modern calendar.

While we can’t thank the Romans for inventing the toilet, we can thank them for creating the sewage system. Before sewers, people would leave their waste in pots or jugs and leave them for slaves to clean up. Basically, it was a smelly mess! The Romans decided to create public bathrooms to ﬁx this problem. Long stone benches were made with holes in the center for people to sit on and use the bathroom. Thanks to aqueducts, water would ﬂow beneath the stone slabs and drain the waste into a large sewage system known as the Great Drain. The Romans really knew how to deal with a stinky situation!