There are many reasons that make the fall of
the roman empire one of the greatest tragedies of human history. From the lost marvellous
and beautiful architecture of antiquity with its splendorous temples, statues, impressive
domes, large baths, and impressive imperial Fora. To the lost works of many great philosophers
of ancient greece, whose works were held in many great libraries throughout the empire. To
the loss of surprisingly advanced technologies of science and engineering. In this
video we are going to explore the most advanced roman technologies that were
in use in the time of the roman empire, which were lost when the Imperium Romanum fell
and had to be rediscovered many centuries later. One Advanced Engineering Roman concrete The Romans are sometimes unfairly accused
of having copied technologies from others, and just having refined them. But we
shall see during the course of this video, that this is not true, as most of
the inventions in this video here, are purely roman ones. And roman concrete is such
a purely roman invention, that was so far ahead of its time, that in some regards, it is still
superior to concrete we use in our modern time. For one, roman concrete is much more durable and
long lived, especially against exposure to water, and has a much lower environmental impact than
modern concrete. Already by the 2nd century BC the Romans had perfected their concrete mixture. They
were already able to build underwater structures using submerged concrete pouring, structures that sometimes
survive to this day as for example in the old city of Caesarea. The dome of the Pantheon is another
instance where roman concrete was used, allowing to create an unprecedentedly large
Dome. The Romans achieved the extreme durability of their concrete by adding volcanic ash
called Pozzolana to the cement mixture. Some modern day concrete producing companies are
actually trying to emulate the roman concrete, replacing the volcanic ash with coal fly ash
which offers similar properties. It reduces costs by as much as 60%, has a smaller
environmental footprint by lower carbon emissions, and offers a much longer lifespan than our modern concrete. It is fascinating to see that the romans were so ahead of their time with their concrete,
that we are actually copying them even today. Two Aqueducts
Another astounding feat of roman engineering are the giant aqueduct systems which they built,
that supplied the large cities of the empire with fresh water. The Aqua Claudia for example,
completed under Emperor Claudius in 52 AD, supplied Rome with 192000 cubic meters of fresh
water per day, brought to the city from a distance of 69 kilometers. At its highest point, this
imposing aqueduct, rose to an incredible 32 meters above ground, near the Palatine Hill. But aqueduct
constructions in other parts of the empire were even more incredible. The aqueduct
supplying the city of Decapolis with water had a section 106 kilometers long, dug through
a mountain. This is the longest known tunnel of antiquity. To make it even crazier, the
tunnel has an inclination of only 1 meter per 5 kilometers. Even today, this would be a
challenging feat, and modern measuring equipment would be needed to construct a tunnel with such
an extremely low inclination. Or the 50 kilometer length aqueduct that supplied Nemausus, modern day
Nimes with water. This aqueduct's average gradient was also extremely low with only 1 in 3000. It led
over an extremely impressive aqueduct bridge, the famous Pont du Gard. So we see
that the Romans were master builders and built on a level, that would even today
pose some challenges to modern day engineers. Three Gargantuan buildings
But the romans were also pioneers of building truly massive buildings or building
complexes. The baths of Caracalla for example, completed in 217 AD, covered a surface
area of 100,000 m^2 or 10 hectares, were in parts 40 meters high, and boasted a dome
of around 36 meters of diamter. Then we have the Basilica of Maxentius, the last large building
built at the Forum Romanum and finished in 312 AD. The side vaults of this building still survived
to this day and are suspended 39 meters above the ground level. Or the largest roman temple
ever built, the temple of Jupiter at Heliopolis, also known as Baalbek. A few of the giant columns
of the temple are still standing. They are 20 meters tall and 2.5 meters wide, the largest pillars ever
built in antiquity. And we have no idea how the Romans managed to erect these giant pillars. It is
speculated that they must have constructed a very capable crane, only for this purpose, in order to
be able to erect these massive columns that weight dozens of tons each. The heaviest blocks of the
surviving part of the temple weighed as much as 100 metric tons, and they had to be raised to 20
meters above the ground. A truly incredible feat of engineering! Interesting side note: The temple
of Jupiter was constructed on an older platform. This platform contains some truly gargantuan
cyclopean stones, some of which weigh 800 tons. It is quite unknown how such massive stones were
moved in ancient times. To make it even crazier, in the quarry nearby, stones were found where
extraction had already started, weighing 1200 tons and one even 1600 metric tons. However, these
stones were left in the quarry. It is thus with utter disbelief when we see what incredible feats
of building mastery the Romans or the ancients in general, were capable of, since lifting such
stones would pose a technological challenge even today. And please like this video and subscribe, and also turn on the bell so that you won't
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the late roman empire. Gratias ago tibi Amici! 4. Arches
The romans were also the first to understand the load bearing capacity of arches. They
made frequent use of them in many aqueducts and bridges, but also in regular buildings.
The Alcantara bridge in modern day spain is an excellent example of the immense load bearing
capacity of which roman structures were capable. These arches have a width of almost 29 meters and
a height of 45 meters, built so sturdy as to give this marvel of ancient bridge building a load
bearing capacity of 52 metric tons. This means that even some modern day military tanks could
roll over that bridge without making it collapse. 5. Giant Domes
But the Romans were also master dome builders. We already mentioned the 36 meter diameter
dome of the huge baths of Caracalla, but of course the most famous such structure is part of the Pantheon. The pantheon, this magnificent temple first built by Marcus Agrippa,
but rebuilt by Hadrian himself and finished around 126 AD, has an extremely large dome, measuring 43.3
meters in diamter. To put it into perspective how far ahead of its time that was, it would
take 1300 years until an only slightly larger Dome of 45 meters diameter was constructed, with the
Florence cathedral in 1436. But still to this day, the dome of the Pantheon is the largest dome built out
of non-reinforced concrete in the world. 6. Amphitheaters
The most famous roman amphitheater is of course the Amphitheatrum Flavium commonly known as the
Colosseum. Construction began on orders of emperor Vespasian, and was finished under his son Titus in
80AD. The structure is an oval, 189 meters long, 156 meters wide and 48 meters high, with the
arena being an oval 87 meters long, 55 meters wide, and surrounded by a 5 meter high wall. The
outer wall alone is estimated to have contained 100,000 cubic meters of travertine stone, held
together by 300 metric tons of iron clamps. It could hold around 50 to 80 thousand spectators,
the exact number probably somewhere in between, and had such an organized seating arrangement,
that it could be completely evacuated in just 10 minutes. To achieve that, it had
eighty entrances at ground level, where each entrance was numbered as was each staircase.
This impressive building was so far ahead of its time, that it served as a blueprint for
modern stadium constructions in the early 20th century. Again a case where we were inspired by
ancient roman technology in our modern times. 7. Huge Road Network
The romans are of course also famous for their infrastructure, which they had advanced
to an unparalleled degree in the ancient world. The late empire's 113 provinces were
interconnected by 372 main roads, that equalled a total length of 400,000 kilometers.
There were many outposts along the road, many post stations and even lodgings for travellers.
When the roman empire fell, so did this advanced infrastructure network fall, and it would take
again a long time, a thousand years, until the infrastructure of Europe would again rise to
such levels of advancement as in roman times. II. Roman mining
We know that the romans were also excellent steel workers, it is thus clear that
they had to mine large quantities of iron ore. But especially for their gold and silver coins, large
quantities of precious metals had to be mined. And the romans mined on such a vast scale, that
we could really call this an industrial level mining operation in some parts, unrivalled
again in its scale, until the modern age. We think that only we in our modern times can
have a significant impact on large landscapes with huge mining operations, but the romans
prove us wrong. In the spanish region of Leon lies an unusual landscape called "Las Medulas".
What is so special about this landscape, is that it is man made. The romans had mined gold here
on such a scale, as to make entire mountains disappear, and what is left now, has thus this
strange shape. For around 250 years they washed out huge quantities of earth from these mountains
using hydraulic power. It is estimated that forty million cubic meters of earth were removed from
the central zone of the mountain range, alone. What we can see on this picture is only a
small part of what were once the original Medulla mountains. A mountain containing 200 billion
cubic meters of material disappeared completely. This resulted in at least 1 million kilogramms of
gold that was mined here in its 250 year activity. It is remarkable that an ancient civilization
already had such a huge impact on landscapes, something that had been thought to
be a purely modern day phenomenon. The Romans show us again how far
ahead of their time they had been. III. Computers
We think of computers as an invention of the modern age, however, in 1901 divers discovered
a strange device in a shipwreck off the coast of the greek island of Antikythera. Although this
device is greek in origin and strictly doesn't belong on this list, it dates from the 1st to
the 2nd century BC, and thus is quite likely from the era when Greece was already annexed by the
romans and incorporated into the growing Imperium Romanum. This machine, encased in a housing
of 34x18x9 cm, is a complex arrangement of many gears and gearwheels, with a precision as
was thought only possible in modern clockworks. It is thought that with it, one could
predict the position of the sun and moon, the moon phases, eclipses, calendar cycles
and perhaps even the location of planets. Analog computers of such complecity were
again built only as late as the 19th century. IV. Roman Nanotechnology
But if you thought that analog computers in antiquity are bizzarre, the Lycurgus Cup will
prove that the Romans were capable of things that modern researchers had thought impossible.
The Lycurgus cup is such an example. It dates from the late roman empire, the late 4th
century AD, so an era where we would think that feats of advanced technology were not
possible any more due to the empire's decline. The cup is special, because it is made of a type
of glass, that appears green in reflected light, but red in transmitted light so when the light is passing
through it. To achieve that, the romans extracted extremely small gold and silver
nanoparticles only around 70 nanometers in size, and mixed these nanoparticles with the glass. It
is completely unknown how exactly they extracted such small particles, that can only be seen with
an electron microscope, from gold and silver. It is very unlikely that they had actual
knowledge of nanotechnology, but they understood that they were extracting something
very small, and what effect this would have. V. Irrigation system, running
water and heating systems The romans also built a quite modern irrigation
system into their cities, most famous of all is of course the Cloaca Maxima of Rome. But
they also built vast networks of water pipes, supplying the fresh water from the aqueducts to
baths, households, and fountains. The pipes were made out of lead, with debate still ongoing what
effect this lead might have had on the well-being of the romans. This shall be explored in
a different video, but to anticipate it, possible lead poisoning ranks very low on the
list of possible reasons as to why the empire fell. The romans also employed floor heating, the
so-called hypocaust, where hot air was circulated below the floor. This was used in Villas
of wealthy individuals for floor heating, but it was also used in the roman baths, in
order to heat the warm water pools, the so-called caldariums. We can see again how modern the
Romans were in many regards of every day life. VI. Surgical instruments
The Romans also pioneered surgery, based on prior works by the legendary
Hippocrates himself. But they advanced it to a level unknown before in the ancient world.
They used a variety of surgical procedures using many types of different instruments
such as forceps, scalpels and catheters. There were even forms of plastic surgery, where
deformations could be reversed or different parts of the body could be reshaped in order to achieve
a beauty standard, really not too different from nowadays. There were even procedures to remove
cataracts, to stitch complicated battle wounds, and many more. Aulus Cornelius Celsus was a true
pioneer of roman medicine, and he for example described many different types of diseases, wounds
and ailments and how to treat them in very often surprisingly modern ways. Some roman medicii even
specialized in anesthesiology. The anesthetist would administer powdered mandrake in a draft
of wine. The sedative powdered Corn poppy was often added to the wine. A local
anesthetic used in surgery was a mixture of Memphitic stone and henbane seeds ground up
and smeared on areas about to undergo surgery. Quite impressive and certainly a lot more
advanced than later medieval medicine. VII. Giant Watermills
Now we are getting to the section where we hopefully will understand that Rome was not as
far away from some sort of industrial revolution, than we sometimes believe. The romans
built a watermill complex at Barbegal, located near modern day Arles, which
was called Arelate in roman times. In order to supply the 30 to 40 thousand residents
of Arelate with flour for the baking of bread, they built a truly astounding complex of
seven mill houses, employing a total of 16 water wheels. The power of water was here
converted on a truly industrial scale, yielding an incredible 4.5 metric tons of
flour every single day. So we can see that the romans did make use of the power of nature,
and did not rely on slaves to do all the work. It is thus conceivable that an industrial
revolution could have happened, a notion which we shall explore in a separate video. But the romans
also built huge waterwheels, so-called Norias. Even though none has survived from roman times,
they are depicted on quite a few mosaics. Here in a mosaic from the era of
Constantine, so from the early 4th century, then another one dated surprisingly late from 469 AD,
and even one from the later eastern romans from the era of the emperor Justinian, from the mid
sixth century AD. It is thought that the medieval era Norias of Hama, are a direct evolution of
older roman era water wheels from that region. The roman water wheel technology was also picked
up in the medieval era by the Cistercian monks, who would build on that technology, refine it, and
this would contribute in some form to help spark the industrial revolution. So we can say that even though
the romans did not industrialize themselves, their industrial application of waterwheel
technology did contribute in some form to spark an industrialization long
after their empire had fallen. IIX. Advanced Machines If you thought that giant watermill industrial
complexes sound already a bit steampunk, then this here will be certainly to your liking. The greek mathematician and engineer Heron,
who lived in imperial roman era Alexandria, the intellectual capital of the Imperium, was
a genius who invented many astounding machines. And his Aeolipile, was a precursor to the steam
engine. Here, water in a spherical vessel was heated by fire, and the resulting steam would
exit via two bent orifices, arranged such as to convert the motion of the steam into a circular
motion. Thus, effectively a steam engine precursor was created, where the energy of steam was used to
create mechanical motion. However, unfortunately, Heron didn't see the potential behind this
invention and only saw it as an amusing toy. We can only speculate what would have happened,
had he understood the potential of his Aeolipile, and in fact, this will serve as a branching point
for a future what if alternate history video. IIX.2 Automatons, programmable computers,
and an automatic temple door opening But Heron's genius went even further. He built
the first known automatons, basically some sort of robot precursors, thus we can call Heron
a pionerr of robotics or cybernetics. He also built an elaborate automated door opening
mechanism for a temple, where it seemed for visitors that the temple doors were opening
magically, as if directed by a divine power. And he even build what can be understood as
programmable computers, by a complex arrangement of ropes and knots, that would operate figures in
a theater play, thus the entire theater sequence would be performed on its own. Truly some
marvellous technological accomplishments! IIX.3. Nero's rotating platform
Another astounding example for a machine of the roman period, is Nero's rotating dining platform.
The emperor Nero had a rotating circular platform built on the Palatine hill, quite likely after
the great fire of 64 AD. Here, guests could sit on the platform that was part of a larger dining
room complex, and enjoy the spectacular view over Rome in a slowly rotating manner. The machine was
quite complex. An array of interlocked gearwheels, translated the horizontal motion of the river
into a rotating motion of the platform, and bronze spheres acted as ball bearings under a layer
of several wooden floors. Quite a magnificent piece of engineering. After Nero's reign had
turned tyrannical in his later years, the rotating dining platform was built over under his
successors, and had only been discovered in 2009. IX. Greek Fire
The romans invented quite a few military technologies that would go beyond the
scope of this video, but one should be mentioned here that was so advanced, that it basically saved
the later eastern romans many times from disaster. This weapon was used by the eastern romans,
starting in the second half of the 7th century, based on the invetion of Kallinikos, an artificer
who had fled his home town of Heliopolis from the muslim invaders. The exact recipe of the
compound used to feed the flame is still unknown, even though there are some educated guesses as
to its exact composition. It must have been based on crude or refined petroleum of sort, comparable
to modern Napalm. It burned on, and could not be extinguished by water, making
it such a powerful weapon in naval warfare. This terrifying naval weapon would
save the city of Constantinople many times from foreign invaders, especially from
the Umayyad caliphate. It is quite possible that the city would have fallen a lot earlier, had
the eastern roman greeks not had this weapon. X. Flexible Glass
This one is a bit more shrouded in mystery, and we cannot be 100% sure of its authenticity.
The story of the flexible glass, called Vitrum Flexile was made famous by Isidore of Seville,
who retold the stories of Plinius the Elder and of Petronius. According to their accounts, supposedly
an inventor once came before the emperor Tiberius. He presented a bowl to the emperor, which the
inventor claimed was indestructible. Tiberius tried to shatter it on the floor, but there was
no dent in the bowl. Supposedly as a reaction, the emperor had the inventor immediately executed, fearing that should the recipe for this material
be made public, it would devalue gold and silver, and cause an economic collapse. Plinius himself
claims that the story is "More widely spread than well authenticated", so we should be skeptical.
But a recent paper from a researcher claims that such a technology would have been
possible in roman times. According to him, the Vitrum Flexile could have been a mixture
of Boron trioxide, known as Borax which was available in antiquity, with glass. Heating sand
to very high temperaturs and mixing it with Borax, could have yielded glass with flexible properties,
comparable to modern day Borosilicate glasses. So if the story of the Vitrum Flexile would
be true, it would be another example where the ancients surprise us with technology way beyond
what we would have thought them capable of. We can thus see that the romans were in many
ways an extremely advanced civilization and when the Imperium fell in the west, Europe was plunged into
a technological dark age, where many inventions would not return for hundreds, if not for one
thousand years. But when the empire also fell in the east, in its final act, the empire would shine
the flame of antiquity one last time onto Europe, igniting the Renaissance when many scholars fled
from Constantinople westward and brought a lot of lost knowledge with them. We can thus see,
that we owe a lot of our own inventions to the greeks and to the romans, and can only wonder
what would have happend, had Rome not fallen. Thank you for watching this video dear
viewers, and a big thanks especially to our dear supporters on Patreon and via the
youtube membership. You people are awesome, and I am sure Majorian would be proud of you
that you support a channel bearing his name. And if you are not supporting this channel
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And if you are interested in what you would have seen at the roman borders or in the city
of Rome itself when the western roman empire fell, you can watch these two videos here.
I say thanks again to all friends of roman history, gratias amici
imperii romani and bene vale!
Yes, but besides all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?