We know the Romans were cruel empire builders- but they couldn't have been all that bad could they? They ruled Britain for over 400 years so surely they must have had some redeeming features!? Well... it turns out that they did! Read on to find out what the Romans gave to us...
1. Toilets!
Yes this sounds weird and a bit boring but imagine your life without your toilet! Where would you go- a hole in the grass!? That's not very private is it!? Yes so the Romans gave us toilets... and sewage systems... which was great for cleaning up public health so don't even think of being weirded out by this! They probably didn't look like our toilets and they weren't as private but they were certainly a big step forward for human civilisation.
2. Fast Food
So like McDonald's and Burger King? Well not exactly, but the Romans were the first to invent street food that you could buy from stalls and they were known for their 'food on the move'.
3. Towns and Cities
Before the Romans, the Britons lived in tiny huts or maybe even collections of huts. However the Romans were the first to introduce the idea of living in more solid, permanent communities like we would know today.
4. Roads
I seem to be saying this a lot, but before the Romans arrived in Britain, the roads were rather unreliable and unusable in the main - especially when the weather was bad. The Romans invented long, straight, strong roads- often with pavements as well- very useful for when they used to transport heavy objects up and down the Empire!
5. The Calendar
The Julian Calendar was very helpfully named after Roman Emperor Julius Caesar- I wonder how he thought of the name!? It was the first calendar to consist of 365 days with a leap year every 4 years. The Gregorian calendar we use today was based on the Julian calendar.
6. The idea of a currency
Coins were used in Briton before the Romans invaded, however, the idea of buying things with these coins hadn't been thought of. The denarius was a currency that could be used in Rome, Britain, North Africa or Turkey.
7. Central heating
These days most people have central heating in the United Kingdom. But who gave it to us? You guessed it- those fabulous Romans. Ground level furnaces were used to heat the air under tiles- not only was it central heating, it was under floor heating too!
8. Concrete
During the Roman Architectural revolution, concrete was developed with these three materials- quicklime, pozzolana and an aggregate of pumice. It was used mainly for roads but also for the Parthenon Dome in Rome.
More articles on Rome are here
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