Ancient Roman technology

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The Pont du Gard in France is a Roman aqueduct built in ca. 19 BC. It is one of France's top tourist attractions and a World Heritage Site.

Roman technology is a set of artifacts and customs which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years.

The Roman Empire had the most advanced set of technology of their time which in most areas was lost 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 and some others - such as firearms, advanced sailing ship technologies and moveable type printing, went ahead of what the Romans had done by the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era. However the Roman technological feats of many different areas, like civil engineering, construction materials, transport technology, and some inventions such as the mechanical reaper went unmatched until the 19th century.

Process of acquiring new technology

Foreign influence

Much of what is described as typically Roman technology, as opposed to that of the Greeks, comes directly from the Etruscan civilization, which was thriving to the North when Rome was just a small kingdom. The Etruscans had perfected the stone arch, and used it in bridges as well as buildings. Etruscan cities had paved streets and sewer systems, unlike most Hellenic city-states, which had muddy roads and no sewers save filthy open-air trenches.

A[ great part of later Roman technologies were taken directly from Greek civilization. Much of the implements of land based Roman armies came out of the experimentation and the new developments in weapons of the Hellenistic wars that raged for decades between the successors of Alexander the Great. Most of the Greek city states abandoned the new weapons developed during these wars, reverting to simpler Macedonian arms and tactics of old, while the Romans took the newest developments and adapted them to their social forms.]link title Roman fleets were based directly on Carthaginian quinqueremes but were quickly adapted with the Roman innovation of the corvus (Polybius 1,21-23).

===[[Slowness of innovation===--69.2.143.70 16:49, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

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Transparent glass bowl of fruit. Wall painting in the Roman Villa Boscoreale,

[[[Link title]link title]]Italy (1st century AD).]]

Roman society was conservative and had little regard for abstract thought. Roman science was virtually non-existent, especially compared with Hellenistic science. Romans thought of themselves as practical, so small scale innovation was common as devices were gradually made more efficient, for example we have the improvement of the overshot water wheel and the improvements of wagon construction. Technology could and did evolve. But without science, step change innovation was almost impossible. The scale of the Empire did encourage the geographical spread of innovations. The ideal Roman citizen was an articulate veteran soldier who could wisely govern a large family household, which was supported by slave labor. Innovators did have some prestige; Pliny, for example, often records their names, or has some story to account for the innovation. Romans also knew enough history to be aware that technological change had occurred in the past and brought benefits. Military innovation was always valued. One text, De Rebus Bellicis, devoted to a number of innovations in military machinery, has come down to us.

The apparent period in which technological progress was fastest and greatest was during the 2nd century and 1st century BC, which was the period in which Roman political and economic power greatly increased. By the 2nd century AD, Roman technology appears to have peaked and it would take nearly two thousand years for all of its technological advancements to be rediscovered by other civilizations. But our understanding of Roman technology is so dominated by Pliny's Natural History that our dating of technological advance may have major errors. By the beginning of the 1st century, most of what is considered today as typical Roman technology was already invented and refined, such as: concrete, plumbing facilities, cranes, wagon technology, mechanized harvesting machines, domes, roman arches, wine and oil presses, and glass blowing.

The energy constraint

All technology uses energy to transform a, usually material, object. 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, oil etc. This is a gross simplification which still has value. The Romans had water but not wind power. Although there were huge reserves of peat and coal in the Roman Empire, to be of use these reserves had to be easily transportable to the major urban centres. In this sense, the Romans lacked efficient fossil energy. The very early industrial revolution would rely on cheap fossil energy. First peat, that would fuel the Dutch Golden Age, then coal, mainly from the coalfield just north of Hadrian's Wall which supplied London. Later the Ruhr coalfield would dominate. These easily worked fuel reserves were all just over the border from the Empire. 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 after c.200 AD the commercial heart of the Empire was in Africa and the East. There was no large coalfield on the edge of the Mediterranean. If there had been, history may have been different. As it was, under-floor heaters called hypocausts did allow them to exploit very poor quality fuels like straw. The vast majority of today's technologies would not be economic at the Roman cost of energy.

The energy constraint shows up in archaeology by the extent to which energy intensive technologies exploited economies of scale e.g. pottery kilns with 40,000 items and baths with 1,600 bathers.

Craft basis

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 tiny number of engineers employed by the army. The most famous engineer of this period was Apollodorus of Damascus. Normally each trade, each group of artisans—stone masons, surveyors, etc.—within a project had its own practice of masters and apprentices, and all kept their trade secrets carefully, passing them on solely by word of mouth. Writers such as Vitruvius were the rare exceptions.

Most of what is known of Roman technology comes indirectly from archaeological work 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 travelers 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.

Engineering and construction

Further information: [[:Roman architecture and Roman engineering and Roman military engineering]]

The Romans made heavy use of aqueducts, bridges, and amphitheaters. They were also responsible for many innovations to roads, sanitation, and construction in general. Roman architecture in general was greatly influenced by the Etruscans. Most of the columns and arches seen in famous Roman architecture was adopted from the Etruscan civilization.

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.

Machines

Reconstruction of a 10.4m high Roman Polyspastos at Bonn, Germany.

There were many different labour saving machines in general use in the Roman world. These included cranes, water mills, various types of presses, many types of grain mills, some primitive harvesting machines, water pumps and cargo ships.

The most used type of mill was the donkey mill. Its wide use was brought about by two factors:

• It could be built in any location in contrast to the water mills.

• donkeys were much cheaper and stronger than slaves, who operated the small and inefficient hand mills and then did not complain.

There were many types of presses to press olives, grapes and cloth. In the 1st century, 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 Hero of Alexandria, but may have already been in use when he mentioned it in his Mechanica III.

Cranes were widely used in the Roman empire. They 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.

Roads

Via Appia, a road connecting the city of Rome to the Southern parts of Italy remains usable even today.

Main article: Roman road

Further information: [[:Roman bridge]]

The Romans primarily built roads for military purposes. They allowed the legions to be rapidly deployed in far reaches of the realm. However, 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 km (53 000 miles).

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 km (500 miles) 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.

Aqueducts

Main article: Aqueduct

Further information: [[:Roman aqueduct]]

The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites. The city of Rome itself was supplied by eleven aqueducts that provided the city with over 1 million cubic meters of water [1], sufficient to supply 3.5 million people [2] and with combined length of 350 km (260 miles).^[3] Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface with only small portions above ground supported by arches. The longest Roman aqueduct, 141 km (87 miles) in length, was built to supply the city of Carthage.^[4]

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 m had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to force water uphill.^[2] An aqueduct also supplied water for the overshot wheels at Barbegal in Roman Gaul, a complex of water mills being hailed as "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world".

Sanitation

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

Further information: [[:Thermae]]

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.

Science, logic, and mathematics

A reconstruction of a Roman abacus in the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.

Further information: [[:Roman arithmetic and Roman numerals]]

If we define Roman by period then the stunning Antikythera mechanism is a Roman analogue computer.

The Romans developed the Roman abacus, the first portable counting device, based on earlier Greek counting boards. It greatly reduced the time needed to perform basic Roman arithmetic operations, and was used heavily by merchants, tax collectors and engineers. It was also used by rich schoolchildren, and another version was to help calculate the movement of the planets.

Roman numerals, the basis for Roman mathematics, were derived from the earlier Etruscan numerals.

Roman military technology

Further information: Roman military engineering

The Roman military had some of the most advanced technology available to armies of the time. This 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 flexibility and protection of most vital areas, and was not associated with the laborious craftwork that other armours (such as chainmail) were. Furthermore, the rest of the Roman soldier's equipment used similarly innovative and effective technology.

Roman siege engines such as ballistas, scorpions and onagers were not unique, but nonetheless were manufactured efficiently enough to provide support for the Roman legions. In Rome the war known as the Punic war was between Carthignians and the Romans. Romans used things like the full body armour. Though it was heavy, it proved to be useful in the end.

List of Roman inventions and Roman-developed technologies

Technology	Date	Comment
Abacus, Roman		Portable.
Amphitheatre		See e.g. Colosseum.
Aqueduct, monumental
Arch, monumental
Bath, monumental public (Thermae)		See e.g. Baths of Diocletian
Book (Codex)		First mentioned by Martial in the 1st C. AD. Held many advantages over the scroll.
Bridge, monumental stone		See e.g. Roman bridge in Chaves, the Severan Bridge or Trajan's bridge over the Danube.
Concrete		Pozzolana variety
Crane, Roman
Dome, monumental		See e.g. Pantheon.
Flamethrower		(Is this Roman? duhh its greek!!!lol XD trad date 670 AD Greek Fire)
'Flos Salis		A product of salt evaporation ponds (probably Dunaliella salina) used in the perfume industry (Pliny Nat. Hist. 31,90)
Glass blowing
		Dichroic glass as in the Lycurgus Cup. [5] Note, this material attests otherwise unknown chemistry (or other way?) to generate nano-scale gold-silver particles.
		Glass mirrors (Pliny the Elder Nat. His 33,130)
Greenhouse cold frames		(Pliny Nat. Hist. 19.64; Columella on Ag. 11.3.52)
Hydraulis		A water organ. Later also the pneumatic organ.
Hydrometer this isn't right ???		Mentioned in a letter of Synesius
Hypocaust		A floor and also wall heating system.
Knife, multifunctional [6]
Machines, water powered reciprocating, i.e. trip hammers		M.J.T.Lewis presents good evidence that water powered vertical pounding machines came in by the middle of the 1st c. AD for fulling, grain hulling (Pliny Nat. Hist. 18,97) and ore crushing (archaeological evidence at Dolaucothi Gold Mines and Spain).
Mills
		Grainmill, rotary. According to Moritz (p57) rotary grainmills were not known to the ancient Greeks but date from before 160 BC. Unlike reciprocating mills, rotary mills could be easily adapted to animal or water power. Lewis (1997) argues that the rotary grainmill dates to the 5th century BC in the western Mediterranean. Animal and water powered rotary mills came in the 3rd century BC.
		Sawmill, water powered. Recorded by 370 AD, using horizontal reciprocation. Attested in Ausonius's poem Mosella. Translated [7]"the Ruwer sends mill-stones swiftly round to grind the corn, And drives shrill saw-blades through smooth marble blocks"
		Watermill. Improvements upon earlier models. For the largest mill complex known see [8]
Newspaper, rudimentary		See Acta Diurna.
Odometer
Paddle wheel boats		In de Rebus Bellicis (possibly only a paper invention).
Pewter		Mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. 34,160-1). Surviving examples are mainly Romano-British of the 3rd and 4th centuries e.g.[9] and[10]. Roman pewter had a wide range of proportions of tin but proportions of 50%, 75% and 95% predominate (Beagrie 1989).
Piston pump
Plough
		iron-bladed (A much older innovation (e.g. Bible; I Samuel 13,20-1) that became much more common in the Roman period)
		wheeled (Pliny Nat. His. 18.171-3) (More important for the Middle Ages, than this era.)
Pottery, glossed		i.e. Samian ware
Reaper		An early harvesting machine: vallus (Pliny the Elder Nat. His. 18,296, Palladius 7.2.2-4 [11])
Sails		introduction of fore and aft rigs 1) the Lateen sail 2) the Spritsail, this last solely attested as a carving of a decked ship on a 3rd century AD sarcophagus (Toby ref.) Note: there is no evidence of any combination of fore and aft rigs with square sails on the same Roman ship.
Sausage, fermented dry (probably)		See salami.
Screw press
Sewers
Soap, hard (sodium)		First mentioned by Galen (earlier, potassium, soap being Celtic).
Stenography, a system of		See Tironian notes.
Street map, early		See Forma Urbis Romae and [12]
Sundial, portable		See Theodosius of Bithynia
Surgical instruments, various
Tooth implants, iron		See [13]
Towpath		E.G. beside the Danube, see the "road" in Trajan's bridge
Tunnels		Excavated from both ends simultaneously. The longest known is the 5.6km drain of the Fucine lake
Vehicles, one wheeled		Solely attested by a Latin word in 4th C. AD Scriptores Historiae Augustae Heliogabalus 29. As this is fiction, the evidence dates to its time of writing.
Wood veneer		Pliny Nat. Hist. 16.231-2

Further reading

Current state of research

• Andrew Wilson, "Machines, Power and the Ancient Economy", The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 92 (2002), pp. 1-32
• Kevin Greene, "Technological Innovation and Economic Progress in the Ancient World: M.I. Finley Re-Considered", The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 1. (Feb., 2000), pp. 29-59

General history of inventions

• Derry, Thomas Kingston and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. New York : Dover Publications, 1993
• Williams, Trevor I. A History of Invention From Stone Axes to Silicon Chips. New York, New York, Facts on File, 2000

Metallurgy

• Neil Beagrie, "The Romano-British Pewter Industry", Britannia, Vol. 20 (1989), pp.169-91

Milling

• Lewis, M.J.T., 1997, Millstone and Hammer, University of Hull Press
• Moritz, L.A., 1958, Grainmills and Flour in Classical Antiquity, Oxford

Mining

• A.H.V. Smith, "Provenance of Coals from Roman Sites in England and Wales", Britannia, Vol. 28 (1997), pp.297-324

Overview of ancient technology

• Drachmann, A. G., Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity, Lubrecht & Cramer Ltd, 1963 ISBN 0934454612
• Hodges, Henry., Technology in the Ancient World, London: The Penguin Press, 1970
• Landels, J.G., Engineering in the Ancient World, University of California Press, 1978
• White, K.D., Greek and Roman Technology, Cornell University Press, 1984

Sails

• Toby, A.Steven "Another look at the Copenhagen Sarcophagus", International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 1974 vol.3.2: 205-211

Water supply

• ^ "De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae" by Sextus Julius Frontinus (On the water management of the city of Rome, translated by R. H. Rodgers, 2003, University of Vermont) (retrieved November 22, 2005)
• ^ ^a "Water and Wastewater Systems in Imperial Rome". WaterHistory.org. International Water History Association. Retrieved 2005-11-22. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)

External links

• Traianus - Technical investigation of Roman public works
• Roman Traction Systems - Horse, harness, wagon
• Roman Horse Harnesses - With pictorial evidence
• Roman Concrete - Roman concrete buildings