page_title: Ancient Rome
section_title: Technology
hierarchical_section_title: Ancient Rome / Technology
caption_attribution_description: English: Pont du Gard, in Vers-Pont-du-Gard, Gard department, South France. The Pont du Gard is the most famous part of the roman aqueduct which carried water from Uzès to Nîmes until roughly the 9th century when maintenance was abandoned. The monument is 49m high and now 275m long (it was 360m when intact) at its top. It's the highest roman aqueduct, but also one of the best preserved (with the aqueduct of Segovia). The Pont du Gard is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1985. Français&#160;: Le Pont du Gard, à Vers-Pont-du-Gard, département du Gard, région Languedoc-Roussillon, France. Le Pont du Gard (1er siècle C.E.) est la partie la plus célèbre de l'aqueduc romain qui conduisait l'eau d'Uzès à Nîmes, jusqu'au 9ème siècle où l'on cessa de l'entretenir. Le monument fait 49 mètres de haut et aujourd'hui 275 mètres de long (360 mètres quand il était intact). C'est l'aqueduc roman le plus haut, mais aussi, avec celui de Ségovie, l'un des mieux préservés. Le Pont du Gard est un site du patrimoine mondial de l'humanité de l'UNESCO depuis 1985. Español: El Pont du Gard (puente del Gard), en Vers-Pont-du-Gard, departamento de Gard, en la región de Languedoc-Rosellón, sur de Francia, es la parte más conocida del acueducto romano que conducía el agua desde Uzès a Nîmes hasta el siglo&#160;IX, cuando cesó su actividad. El puente mide 49&#160;metros de alto y 275&#160;metros de largo (360&#160;m cuando se encontraba intacto en la antigüedad). Es el acueducto romano más alto y también, junto al de Segovia, en España, uno de los mejor conservados. El Pont du Gard fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la UNESCO en 1985.
context_page_description: In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.
  The civilisation began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, traditionally dated to 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The civilization was led and ruled by the Romans, alternately considered an ethnic group or a nationality. The Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.
  In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a democratic classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic semi-elective military dictatorship during the Empire.
context_section_description: Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advancements that were lost in the Middle Ages and not rivaled again until the 19th and 20th centuries. An example of this is insulated glazing, which was not invented again until the 1930s. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier Greek designs. Advancements were often divided and based on craft. Artisans guarded technologies as trade secrets.
  Roman civil engineering and military engineering constituted a large part of Rome's technological superiority and legacy, and contributed to the construction of hundreds of roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, theaters and arenas. Many monuments, such as the Colosseum, Pont du Gard, and Pantheon, remain as testaments to Roman engineering and culture.
  The Romans were renowned for their architecture, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "Classical architecture". Although there were many differences from Greek architecture, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new orders of columns, composite and Tuscan, and from the dome, which was derived from the Etruscan arch, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Republic.
  In the 1st century BC, Romans started to use concrete widely. Concrete was invented in the late 3rd century BC. It was a powerful cement derived from pozzolana, and soon supplanted marble as the chief Roman building material and allowed many daring architectural forms. Also in the 1st century BC, Vitruvius wrote De architectura, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In the late 1st century BC, Rome also began to use glassblowing soon after its invention in Syria about 50 BC. Mosaics took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during Lucius Cornelius Sulla's campaigns in Greece.
  The Romans also largely built using timber, causing a rapid decline of the woodlands surrounding Rome and in much of the Apennine Mountains due to the demand for wood for construction, shipbuilding and fire. The first evidence of long-distance wood trading come from the discovery of wood planks, felled between A.D. 40 and 60, coming from the Jura mountains in northeastern France and ending up more than 1,055 miles away, in the foundations of a lavish portico that was part of a vast wealthy patrician villa, in Central Rome. It is suggested that timber, around 4 meters long, came up to Rome via the Tiber River via ships traveling across the Mediterranean Sea from the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers in what is now the city of Lyon in present-day France.
  With solid foundations and good drainage, Roman roads were known for their durability and many segments of the Roman road system were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. They allowed Roman legions to be deployed rapidly, with predictable marching times between key points of the empire, no matter the season. These highways also had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the saying "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained a system of way stations, known as the cursus publicus, that provided refreshments to couriers at regular intervals along the roads and established a system of horse relays allowing a dispatch to travel up to 80 km (50 mi) a day.
  The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to aid in their agriculture. By the third century, the city of Rome was supplied by 11 aqueducts with a combined length of 450 km (280 mi). Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Sometimes, where valleys deeper than 500 m (1,640 ft) had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to convey water across a valley.
  The Romans also made major advancements in sanitation. Romans were particularly famous for t
caption: Pont du Gard in France is a Roman aqueduct built in c. 19 BC. It is a World Heritage Site.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2014:06:19 19:39:16", "Image Artist": "Benh LIEU SONG", "Image Copyright": "CC-by-SA 3.0 unported", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "570", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12425", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:11 20:05:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:11 20:05:40", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Benh LIEU SONG", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "0380424776"}