This course studies a number of contributions of the Roman Empire to our present way of living. The course begins with a study of the contributions of the Romans to our physical environment like roads and bridges, aqua ducts, drainage and sewage systems. The Roman Empire was not only influential in the develpopment of our physical environment, but was important to us culturally. Roman sculpture especially the shoulder bust still exists today. The literary latin of Virgil and Cicero is the language of poets and prose writers.
Language leads to literature, another debt to Rome.
Main forms of poetry, epic, didactic, lyric, elegiac, dramatic, were all handed on to Rome by Greece. If one were asked to name the latin poets who have had most influence on European poetry, doubtless the answer would be Virgil, Horace and Ovid. Rome has handed down to the modern world treasures of art and architecture, language and literature, and thought and action, and remains for us the greatest figure amongst the peoples of antiquity and the source and foundation of much that we count best in our own civilisation. Learn about the contribution of the Roman Empire to our modern day society by enrolling in The Romans course.