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= Roman technology = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Further information: Technological history of the Roman military The Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct built in c. 19 BC

Mercury gilded statue – Marcus Aurelius The sixteen overshot wheels at Barbegal, considered the biggest ancient mill complex. Their capacity was sufficient to feed the whole nearby city of Arles

Scheme of the Roman Hierapolis sawmill, the earliest known machine to incorporate a crank and connecting rod mechanism. The 4th-century Roman Lycurgus cup is one of the earliest known examples of nanoengineering

A Roman cage cup from the 4th century AD hypothesized as a floating wick oil lamp to give magical downwards lighting effects Via Appia, a road connecting the city of Rome to the Southern parts of Italy, remains usable even today

The Colosseum in Rome, Italy Reconstruction of a 10.4-metre-high Roman construction crane at Bonn, Germany

Aqueduct of Segovia 1st-century Roman bridge in Vaison la Romaine, France

Development of Dolaucothi mine Roman public baths in Bath, England. The loss of the original roof has encouraged green algae growth

A Roman Ballista Roman Pentaspastos ("Five-pulley-crane"), a medium-sized variant (c. 450 kg load)

Roman harvesting machine: overview The unfinished Roman Corinth Canal, 1st century AD

Ship with spritsail, the earliest fore-and-aft rig, 3rd century AD Pointable fire engine nozzle Late Roman paddle-wheel boat, 4th century AD (medieval copy) Donkey mills at Pompeii Oil press of Early (pre?) Roman type Modern oil screw press following Roman conceptual innovation stern mounted rudder Roman turbine mill at Chemtou, Tunisia

Roman harvesting machine: detail Glassware from Pompeii Roman surgery tools Roman crank handle from Augusta Raurica, dating to no later than c. 250 AD

Roman technology is the engineering practice which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible for over a millennium (753 BC–476 AD).

The Roman Empire was one of the most technologically advanced civilizations of antiquity, with some of the more advanced concepts and inventions forgotten during the turbulent eras of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Gradually, some of the technological feats of the Romans were rediscovered and/or improved upon, while others went ahead of what the Romans had done during the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era. Several Roman technological feats in different areas like civil engineering, construction materials, transport technology, and some inventions such as the mechanical reaper, were surprising achievements until the 19th century. The Romans achieved high levels of technology in large part because they borrowed technologies from the Greeks, Etruscans, Celts, and others.

Contents
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 * 1The energy constraint
 * 2Craft basis
 * 3Engineering and construction
 * 3.1Roads
 * 3.2Aqueducts
 * 3.3Bridges
 * 3.4Dams
 * 3.5Mining
 * 3.6Sanitation
 * 4Roman military technology
 * 5Technologies developed or invented by the Romans
 * 6See also
 * 7References
 * 8Further reading
 * 9External links

The energy constraint[edit | edit source]
See also: List of Roman watermills

All technology uses energy to transform the material into a desirable object or uses some form of mechanics combined with another form to make something better. The cheaper energy is, the wider the class of technologies that are considered economic. This is why technological history can be seen as a succession of ages defined by energy type i.e. human, animal, water, peat, coal, and oil. The Romans used water power, and watermills were common throughout the Empire, especially to the end of the 1st century AD. They were used for cereals milling, sawing timber and crushing ore. They exploited wood and coal for heating. There were huge reserves of wood, peat and coal in the Roman Empire, but they were all in the wrong place. Wood could be floated down rivers to the major urban centres but otherwise it was a very poor fuel, being heavy for its caloric value. If this was improved by being processed into charcoal, it was bulky. Nor was wood ever available in any concentration. Diocletian's Price Edict can give us a glimpse of the economics of transporting wood. The maximum price of a wagon load of 1,200 lbs of wood was 150 d.(denari). The maximum freight charge per mile for the same wagon load was 20 d. per mile. Room heating was normally better done by charcoal braziers than hypocausts. But hypocausts did allow them to exploit any poor-quality smoky fuels like straw, vine prunings and small wood locally available. Hypocausts also allowed them to generate a humid heat for their baths.

The Romans worked almost all the coalfields of England that outcropped on the surface, by the end of the 2nd century (Smith 1997; 323). But there is no evidence that this exploitation was on any scale. After c. 200 AD the commercial heart of the Empire was in Africa and the East where the climate severely limited timber growth. There was no large coalfield on the edge of the Mediterranean.

Nevertheless, in Roman Egypt all the essential components of the much later steam engine were first assembled by the Greek Mathematician and Engineer Hero:

However, the aeolipile was a reaction engine, inefficient as a stationary engine. The first useful steam engine did not use steam pressure at all, but followed up a scientific advance in understanding air pressure.

Craft basis[edit | edit source]
Roman technology was largely based on a system of crafts, although the term engineering is used today to describe the technical feats of the Romans. The Greek words used were mechanic or machine-maker or even mathematician which had a much wider meaning than now. There were a large number of engineers employed by the army. The most famous engineer of this period was the Greek Apollodorus of Damascus. Normally each trade, each group of artisans—stonemasons, glass blowers, surveyors, etc.—within a project had its own practice of masters and apprentices, and many tried to keep their trade secrets, passing them on solely by word of mouth, a system still in use today by those who do not want to patent their inventions. Writers such as Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder and Frontinus published widely on many different technologies, and there was a corpus of manuals on basic mathematics and science such as the many books by Archimedes, Ctesibius, Heron (a.k.a. Hero of Alexandria), Euclid and so on. Not all of the manuals which were available to the Romans have survived, as lost works illustrate.

Much of what is known of Roman technology comes indirectly from archaeology and from the third-hand accounts of Latin texts copied from Arabic texts, which were in turn copied from the Greek texts of scholars such as Hero of Alexandria or contemporary travellers who had observed Roman technologies in action. Writers like Pliny the Elder and Strabo had enough intellectual curiosity to make note of the inventions they saw during their travels, although their typically brief descriptions often arouse discussion as to their precise meaning. On the other hand, Pliny is perfectly clear when describing gold mining, his text in book XXXIII having been confirmed by archaeology and field-work at such sites as Las Medulas and Dolaucothi.

Engineering and construction[edit | edit source]
Further information: Roman architecture, Roman engineering, and Roman military engineering

The Romans made great use of aqueducts, dams, bridges, and amphitheatres. They were also responsible for many innovations to roads, sanitation, and construction in general. Roman architecture in general was greatly influenced by the Greeks and Etruscans. Many of the columns and arches seen in Roman architecture were adopted from the Greek and Etruscan civilizations present in Italy.

In the Roman Empire, cements made from pozzolanic ash/pozzolana and an aggregate made from pumice were used to make a concrete very similar to modern Portland cement concrete. In 20s BC the architect Vitruvius described a low-water-content method for mixing concrete. The Romans found out that insulated glazing (or "double glazing") improved greatly on keeping buildings warm, and this technique was used in the construction of public baths.

Another truly original process which was born in the empire was the practice of glassblowing, which started in Syria and spread in about one generation in the empire.

There were many types of presses to press olives. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder reported the invention and subsequent general use of the new and more compact screw presses. However, the screw press was almost certainly not a Roman invention. It was first described by the Greek mathematician and engineer, Hero of Alexandria, but may have already been in use when he mentioned it in his Mechanica III.

Cranes were used for construction work and possibly to load and unload ships at their ports, although for the latter use there is according to the “present state of knowledge” still no evidence. Most cranes were capable of lifting about 6–7 tons of cargo, and according to a relief shown on Trajan's column were worked by treadwheel.

Roads[edit | edit source]
Main article: Roman road

Further information: Roman bridge

The Romans primarily built roads for their military. Their economic importance was probably also significant, although wagon traffic was often banned from the roads to preserve their military value. At its largest extent the total length of the Roman road network was 85,000 kilometres (53,000 mi).

Way stations providing refreshments were maintained by the government at regular intervals along the roads. A separate system of changing stations for official and private couriers was also maintained. This allowed a dispatch to travel a maximum of 800 kilometres (500 mi) in 24 hours by using a relay of horses.

The roads were constructed by digging a pit along the length of the intended course, often to bedrock. The pit was first filled with rocks, gravel or sand and then a layer of concrete. Finally they were paved with polygonal rock slabs. Roman roads are considered the most advanced roads built until the early 19th century. Bridges were constructed over waterways. The roads were resistant to floods and other environmental hazards. After the fall of the Roman Empire the roads were still usable and used for more than 1000 years.

Most Roman cities were shaped like a square. There were 4 main roads leading the center of the city, or forum. They formed a cross shape, and each point on the edge of the cross was a gateway into the city. Connecting to these main roads were smaller roads, the streets where people lived.

Aqueducts[edit | edit source]
Main article: Aqueduct (bridge)

Further information: Roman aqueduct

The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water. The city of Rome itself was supplied by eleven aqueducts made of limestone that provided the city with over 1 million cubic metres of water each day, sufficient for 3.5 million people even in modern-day times, and with a combined length of 350 kilometres (220 mi).

Water inside the aqueducts depended entirely on gravity. The raised stone channels in which the water travelled were slightly slanted. The water was carried directly from mountain springs. After it had gone through the aqueduct, the water was collected in tanks and fed through pipes to fountains, toilets, etc.

The main aqueducts in Ancient Rome were the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Marcia. Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface with only small portions above ground supported by arches. The longest Roman aqueduct, 178 kilometres (111 mi) in length, was traditionally assumed to be that which supplied the city of Carthage. The complex system built to supply Constantinople had its most distant supply drawn from over 120 km away along a sinuous route of more than 336 km.

Roman aqueducts were built to remarkably fine tolerances, and to a technological standard that was not to be equalled until modern times. Powered entirely by gravity, they transported very large amounts of water very efficiently. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 metres had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to force water uphill. An aqueduct also supplied water for the overshot wheels at Barbegal in Roman Gaul, a complex of water mills hailed as "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world".

Bridges[edit | edit source]
Main article: Roman bridge

See also: List of Roman bridges

Roman bridges were among the first large and lasting bridges built. They were built with stone and/or concrete and utilized the arch. Built in 142 BC, the Pons Aemilius, later named Ponte Rotto (broken bridge) is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. The biggest Roman bridge was Trajan's bridge over the lower Danube, constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus, which remained for over a millennium the longest bridge to have been built both in terms of overall and span length. They were most of the time at least 60 feet (18 m) above the body of water.

An example of temporary military bridge construction is the two Caesar's Rhine bridges.

Dams[edit | edit source]
Main article: List of Roman dams and reservoirs

They also built many dams for water collection, such as the Subiaco Dams, two of which fed Anio Novus, one of the largest aqueducts of Rome. They built 72 dams in just one country, Spain and many more are known across the Empire, some of which are still in use. At one site, Montefurado in Galicia, they appear to have built a dam across the river Sil to expose alluvial gold deposits in the bed of the river. The site is near the spectacular Roman gold mine of Las Medulas. Several earthen dams are known from Britain, including a well-preserved example from Roman Lanchester, Longovicium, where it may have been used in industrial-scale smithing or smelting, judging by the piles of slag found at this site in northern England. Tanks for holding water are also common along aqueduct systems, and numerous examples are known from just one site, the gold mines at Dolaucothi in west Wales. Masonry dams were common in North Africa for providing a reliable water supply from the wadis behind many settlements.

Mining[edit | edit source]
Further information: Roman metallurgy

The Romans also made great use of aqueducts in their extensive mining operations across the empire, some sites such as Las Medulas in north-west Spain having at least 7 major channels entering the minehead. Other sites such as Dolaucothi in south Wales was fed by at least 5 leats, all leading to reservoirs and tanks or cisterns high above the present opencast. The water was used for hydraulic mining, where streams or waves of water are released onto the hillside, first to reveal any gold-bearing ore, and then to work the ore itself. Rock debris could be sluiced away by hushing, and the water also used to douse fires created to break down the hard rock and veins, a method known as fire-setting.

Alluvial gold deposits could be worked and the gold extracted without needing to crush the ore. Washing tables were fitted below the tanks to collect the gold-dust and any nuggets present. Vein gold needed crushing, and they probably used crushing or stamp mills worked by water-wheels to comminute the hard ore before washing. Large quantities of water were also needed in deep mining to remove waste debris and power primitive machines, as well as for washing the crushed ore. Pliny the Elder provides a detailed description of gold mining in book xxxiii of his Naturalis Historia, most of which has been confirmed by archaeology. That they used water mills on a large scale elsewhere is attested by the flour mills at Barbegal in southern France, and on the Janiculum in Rome.

Sanitation[edit | edit source]
Further information: Thermae

The Romans did not invent plumbing or toilets, but instead borrowed their waste disposal system from their neighbors, particularly the Minoans. A waste disposal system was not a new invention, but rather had been around since 3100 BCE, when one was created in the Indus River Valley  The Roman public baths, or thermae served hygienic, social and cultural functions. The baths contained three main facilities for bathing. After undressing in the apodyterium or changing room, Romans would proceed to the tepidarium or warm room. In the moderate dry heat of the tepidarium, some performed warm-up exercises and stretched while others oiled themselves or had slaves oil them. The tepidarium’s main purpose was to promote sweating to prepare for the next room, the caldarium or hot room. The caldarium, unlike the tepidarium, was extremely humid and hot. Temperatures in the caldarium could reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Many contained steam baths and a cold-water fountain known as the labrum. The last room was the frigidarium or cold room, which offered a cold bath for cooling off after the caldarium. The Romans also had flush toilets.

Roman military technology[edit | edit source]
Further information: Roman military engineering

The Roman military technology ranged from personal equipment and armament to deadly siege engines. They inherited almost all ancient weapons.

While heavy, intricate armour was not uncommon (cataphracts), the Romans perfected a relatively light, full torso armour made of segmented plates (lorica segmentata). This segmented armour provided good protection for vital areas, but did not cover as much of the body as lorica hamata or chainmail. The lorica segmentata provided better protection, but the plate bands were expensive and difficult to produce and difficult to repair in the field. Overall, chainmail was cheaper, easier to produce, and simpler to maintain, was one-size fits all, and was more comfortable to wear – thus, it remained the primary form of armour even when lorica segmentata was in use.

The Roman cavalry saddle had four horns [2 ] and was believed to have been copied from Celtic peoples.

Roman siege engines such as ballistas, scorpions and onagers were not unique. But the Romans were probably the first people to put ballistas on carts for better mobility on campaigns. On the battlefield, it is thought that they were used to pick off enemy leaders. There is one account of the use of artillery in battle from Tacitus, Histories III,23:
 * On engaging they drove back the enemy, only to be driven back themselves, for the Vitellians had concentrated their artillery on the raised road that they might have free and open ground from which to fire; their earlier shots had been scattered and had struck the trees without injuring the enemy. A ballista of enormous size belonging to the Fifteenth legion began to do great harm to the Flavians' line with the huge stones that it hurled; and it would have caused wide destruction if it had not been for the splendid bravery of two soldiers, who, taking some shields from the dead and so disguising themselves, cut the ropes and springs of the machine.

Other Notable Inventions:

In summary, Rome contributed numerous advances in technology to the Ancient World. However, it is also viewed that "the ancient world under the domination of Rome [in fact] reached a kind of climax in the technological field [as] many technologies had advanced as far as possible with the equipment then available". This concept of perfecting the unperfected is a theme that governs Roman technological supremacy throughout its 1,470 year reign. Ideas that had already been invented or designed: like the pontoon bridge, aqueduct, and military surgery, weren't constructed or utilized to perfection until the coming of Rome. It's the innovation of theories that contributed to Rome's success, a common theme among conquering empires.
 * Military Surgery: Although varying levels of medicine were practiced in the ancient world, it was properly perfected for the first time by Roman innovators. Rome produced the first battlefield surgery units. In fact Romans “invent many surgical tools and pioneered the use of the cesarean section” . Innovations like “hemostatic tourniquets and arterial surgical clamps to curb blood loss” were used, to name a few examples. Implementation of the first ever battlefield surgery units and contributions to medicine made the Roman army a force to be reckoned with. Roman doctors pioneered the "first version of antiseptic surgery that was not fully embraced unit the 19th century” . Despite the many dangers of fierce combat, Rome's military possessed very capable doctors.
 * Ballista and Onagers: With the core artillery innovations developed by the greeks, Rome saw opportunity in the ability to enhance these long range weapons. Large artillery pieces such as Carroballista and Onagers bombarded enemy lines, before full ground assault by infantry. The manuballista would "often be described as the most advanced two-armed torsion engine used by the Roman Army”. The weapon often looks like a mounted crossbow capable of shooting projectiles. Similarly, the onager “named after the wild ass, because of its ‘kick’ was a larger weapons that was capable of hurling large projectiles at walls or forts.
 * Greek Fire: Originally an incendiary weapon perfected from the greeks in 7th century AD, the Greek Fire “is one of the very few contrivances whose gruesome effectiveness was noted by” many sources. Roman innovators made this already lethal weapon even more deadly. its nature is often described as a “precursor to napalm" . Military strategists often put the weapon to good use during naval battles, and the ingredients to its construction “remained a closely guarded military secret”.
 * Testudo: This strategic military maneuver is originally Roman. The tactic was implemented by having units raise their shields in order to protect from enemy projectiles raining down on them. Commonly used during siege battles, the “sheer discipline and synchronization required to form a Testudo” was a testament to the abilities of legionnaires. Testudo, meaning tortoise in latin, “was not the norm, but rather adopted in specific situations to deal with particular threats on the battlefield”.
 * Pontoon Bridge: Mobility, for a military force, was an essential key to success. Although not a Roman invention, there were instances of "ancient Chinese and Persians making use of the floating mechanism”, Roman generals used the innovation to great effect in campaigns. Leaders commonly surprised enemy units to great effect by speedily crossing otherwise treacherous bodies of water. Lightweight crafts were “organized and ties together with the aid of planks, nails and cables” . Rafts were more commonly used instead of building new makeshift bridges, thus enabling quick construction and eventually, deconstruction.
 * Pilum (spear):The innovated javelin device was designed to be used only once and was destroyed upon use in order to prevent “the enemy from throwing the spear back” . All soldiers carried two versions of this weapon. A solid block of wood in the middle of the weapon enabled legionaries protection for their hands while carrying the device. The weapon “ was usually thrown before engaging the enemy with swords”.