Anyone else catch this? I was channel surfing and happened upon it, and I thought it was fascinating. I knew most of the basics in terms of the various engineering feats, but really appreciated the computer simulations showing them in their “original setting” or as they “originally appeared.” I also enjoyed the historical context - different emperors commissioning works for ego or to serve the populace and what happened to both the emperors and the works.
Good stuff - if anyone can comment on the scholarship I would appreciate it.
The computer simulations were simply amazing, especially the one from the perspective of the water traveling down the aqueducts. You got a good picture of how everything worked. But there are many unanswered questions such as how, after 2,000 years, can the original Roman roads still be in existence, while American roads need to be repaired every year. I wish they went into what we can learn from Rome.
It was a first-rate documentary, though I wish Indira Verma had got more screen time.
I watched it. It had never occurred to me that the Roman sense of superiority was in part due to the fact that they were literally cleaner than everyone else. Also, instead of building huge piles of useless stone like the Egyptians and others did, the Romans actually built useful things. No wonder the Mediterranean world was their bitch for so long. (Well, that and all the state-sponsored torture, slavery and murder.)
After seeing the segment about the aqueducts, it made me sad to think of the day, sometime in the 500s, when the water supply ended, the lines having been cut by whatever barbarian king was attacking at the time. They say the Fall Of Rome wasn’t a single, identifiable event? I beg to differ, it was the hour and day when the fountains stopped working and there was no longer any water for the baths.
To be fair, the roads today serve very different needs than the Roman roads, and subsequently are build differently. I would be very surprised if you could cruise about in your Honda Civic at 75mph on an ancient Roman road
I saw it. I though the stuff about the colluseam, particulary the naval battles, was really cool.
What really suprised me was when they said that using the same tools, we wouldn’t be able to do the same things. Rather disturbing that we can’t do things people from 2000 years ago could.
E-Sabbath - Oh YEAH!! I completely forgot about that - it was him!
I freaked a little, too - actor and I know he is an accomplished piano player - but now an antiquities scholar at Syracuse? Kinda raised my curiosity level.
That’s what I get for watching too late at night after a big Labor Day BBQ…
I thought this was an acknowledgement of the fact that slave and forced labor were the primary drivers of the accomplishment, not a matter of technical know-how.
Driver8 is correct that modern roads serve different needs than Roman roads. Also, the majority of Roman roads are in much milder climates than the roads in a large portion of the US.
That being said, we COULD build roads today that would last for 100 years or more. We know how. We just choose not to because, lacking slave labor, the roads would be too expensive.
What’s funny about the roads is that we still use, basically, the same technique today (at least as far as my knowledge extends).
After digging out where a modern road goes, the first thing that goes down is something called “crush and run”. It comes in different “grades”, but is basically a combination of sand (more like stone dust) and stone. It looks just like the stuff they showed the Romans put down. Now, whether that’s because the computer images were actually based on modern day crush and run, or because modern day crush and run is based on what we know of the Romans, I couldn’t say.
But, above the crush and run is a layer of finer sand, then the roads go down.
If you’ve ever seen a patio or a good walkway built by real stone masons, it’s almost exactly what the romans did. . .fine crush and run, stone dust, stone.
I really don’t understand why the Romans couldn’t make a curve though. They must have seen the utility of that.
Not really. The only place Romans liked curves was on (a) their wimminfolk, and (b) their arches. They were very angular in their architecture for the most part, even with arches and domes.
IMHO, this was not a major part of the reason it lasted. Rome was a remarkable fair and just society, at least according to the standards of its time. The elast lawful elements were probably its extreme upper classes, but they largely confined their depredations to each other. Now, they did use wars to conquer and for conquest, but there is and was nothing unusual about that.
I didn’t mean sand. More like stone dust, but without the bigger stones that are in crush and run.
For the same reason we need curves today. Sometimes going around something is easier than going through it. I’m not suggesting they go making curves through a flat field for the fun of it.
It’s certainly not as difficult when you have your carriages moving at walking to navigate a sharper turn, but it’s not like a “curve” is some engineering marvel either.
One of their favored forms of execution was crucifixion was it not? Have you read descriptions of how it works? REALLY nasty stuff. A torture murder that took hours. I agree that other societies of the time were also vicious by our standards, but that doesn’t lessen the viciousness of the Romans.
I have also never seen this, and can think of no reason for it to be placed under a concrete or asphalt road. But, like I said, it could be a regional variation. Engineering is more art than science in cases like that.
Ah, but the the Romans were master of spectacle. Roads were more than places to send the army, they were monuments to Rome. Easier? Bah! They spat upon easier! Straight roads for the glory of Rome! Barabarians can make roads curving around mountains. It takes Romans to break through a mountain!
