Ancient Roman technology

Roman technology is the set of artifacts and customs which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years.

The Roman Empire had the most advanced set of technologies of their time which in most areas was lost during the turbulent eras of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Gradually, some of the technological feats of the Romans were rediscovered and/or improved upon and some others others - such as firearms, advanced sailing ship technologies and moveable type printing, went ahead of what the Romans had done by the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era. However the roman technological feats of many different areas, like civil engineering, construction materials, transport technology, and some inventions such as the mechanical reaper went unmatched until the 19th century.

Process of acquiring new technology

Foreign influence

Much of what is described as typically Roman technology, as opposed to that of the Greeks, comes directly from the Etruscan civilization, which was thriving to the North when Rome was just a small kingdom. The Etruscans had perfected the stone arch, and used it in bridges as well as buildings. Etruscan cities had paved streets and sewer systems, unlike most Hellenic city-states, which had muddy roads and no sewers save filthy open-air trenches.

A great part of later Roman technologies were taken directly from Greek civilization. Much of the implements of land based Roman armies came out of the experimentation and the new developments in weapons of the Hellenistic wars that raged for decades between the successors of Alexander the Great. Most of the Greek city states abandoned the new weapons^{[citation needed]} developed during these wars, reverting to simpler Macedonian arms and tactics of old, while the Romans took the newest developments and adapted them to their social forms.

Roman fleets were based directly on Carthagen quinqueremes but were quickly adapted with the Roman innovation of the corvus (Polybius 1,21-23).

Slowness of innovation

Roman society was conservative and had little regard for abstract thought. Roman science was virtually non-existant, especially compared with Hellenistic science. Romans thought of themselves as practical, so small scale innovation was common, much more common than taught in traditional history. Technology could and did evolve. But without science, step change innovation was almost impossible. The scale of the Empire did encourage the geographical spread of innovations. The ideal Roman citizen was an articulate veteran soldier who could wisely govern a large family household, which was supported by slave labor. Innovators did have some prestige; Pliny, for example, often records their names, or has some story to account for the innovation. Romans also knew enough history to be aware that technological change had occurred in the past and brought benefits. Military innovation was always valued. One text, De Rebus Bellicis, devoted to a number of paper, mainly military, innovations has come down to us.

The apparent period in which technological progress was fastest and greatest was during the 2nd century and 1st century BCE, which was the period in which Roman political and economic power greatly increased. By the 2nd century CE, Roman technology appears to have peaked and it would take nearly two thousand years for all of its technological advancements to be rediscovered by other civilizations. But our understanding of Roman technology is so dominated by Pliny's Natural History that our dating of technological advance may have major errors. By the beginning of the 1st century , most of what is considered today as typical Roman technology was invented and refined, such as: concrete, plumbing facilities, cranes, wagon technology, mechanized harvesting machines, domes, roman arches, wine and oil presses, and glass blowing.

It took more than a century for concrete to be adopted by the Romans, from its origin in a small corner of the eastern part of the empire. Many other new technologies never were fully used in the Empire, because of the relative scarcity of capital as well as older infrastructure and social issues. With our lack of information and with the benefit of hindsight it is always easy to lament the slow pace of change. But without a patent or copyright system there was little incentive to publish information. In the list below it becomes apparent that many innovations are only known from a single source. This suggests that there are many Roman technologies which are still unknown. The dating of almost all innovations becomes obscure when asides in poems have historical importance.

The energy constraint

All technology uses energy to transform an, usually material, object. The cheaper energy is, the wider the class of technologies that are considered economic. This is why technological history can be seen as a succession of ages defined by energy type i.e. human, animal, water, peat, coal, oil etc. This is a gross simplification which still has value. The Romans had water but not wind power. Although there were huge reserves of peat and coal in the Roman Empire, to be of use these reserves had to be easily transportable to the major urban centres. In this sense, the Romans lacked efficient fossil energy. The very early industrial revolution would rely on cheap fossil energy. First peat, that would fuel the Dutch Golden Age, then coal, mainly from the coalfield just north Hadrian's Wall which supplied London. Later the Ruhr coalfield would dominate. These easily worked fuel reserves were all just over the border from the Empire. The Romans worked almost all the coalfields of England that outcropped on the surface, by the end of the 2nd century (Smith 1997; 323). But after c.200 AD the commercial heart of the Empire was in Africa and the East. There was no large coalfield on the edge of the Mediterranean. If there had been, history may have been different. As it was, hypercausts did allow them to exploit very poor quality fuels like straw. The vast majority of today's technologies would not be economic at the Roman cost of energy.

The energy constraint shows up in archaeology by the extent to which energy intensive technologies exploited economies of scale e.g. pottery kilns with 40,000 items and baths with 1,600 bathers grew very big.

Craft basis

Roman technology was largely based on a system of crafts. Although the term "engineering" is used today to describe the technical feats of the Romans. The Greek words used were mechanic or machine-maker or even mathematician which had a much wider meaning than now. There were a tiny number of engineers employed by the army. The most famous engineer of this period was Apollodorus of Damascus. Normally each trade, each group of artisans—stone masons, surveyors, etc.—within a project had its own practice of masters and apprentices, and all kept their trade secrets carefully, passing them on solely by word of mouth. Writers such as Vitruvius were the rare exceptions.

Most of what is known of Roman technology comes indirectly from archaeological work and from the third-hand accounts of Latin texts copied from Arabic texts, which were in turn copied from the Greek texts of scholars such as Hero of Alexandria or contemporary travelers who had observed Roman technologies in action. Writers like Pliny the Elder and Strabo had enough intellectual curiosity to make note of the inventions they saw during their travels, although their typically brief descriptions often arouse discussion as to their precise meaning.

Engineering and construction

The Romans made heavy use of aqueducts, bridges, and amphitheaters. They were also responsible for many innovations to roads, sanitation, and construction in general. Roman architecture in general was greatly influenced by the Etruscans. Most of the columns and arches seen in famous Roman architecture was adopted from the Etruscan civilization.

In the Roman Empire, cements made from pozzolanic ash/pozzolana and an aggregate made from pumice were used to make a concrete very similar to modern portland cement concrete. In 20s BC the architect Vitruvius described a low-water-content method for mixing concrete. The Romans found out that insulated glazing (or "double glazing") improved greatly on keeping buildings warm, and this technique was used in the construction of public baths.

Another truly original process which was born in the empire was the practice of glassblowing, which started in Syria and spread in about one generation in the empire.

Machines

There were many different labour saving machines in general use in the Roman world. These included cranes, water mills, various types of presses, many types of grain mills, some primitive harvesting machines, water pumps and cargo ships.

The most used type of mill was the donkey mill. Its wide use was brought about by two factors:

It could be built in any location in contrast to the water mills.

Donkeys were much cheaper and stronger than slaves, who operated the small and inefficient hand mills.

There were many types of presses to press olives, grapes and cloth. In the 1st century, Pliny the Elder reported the invention and subsequent general use of the new and more compact screw presses.

Cranes were widely used in the Roman empire. They were used for construction work and to load and unload ships at their ports. Most cranes were capable of lifting about 6-7 tons of cargo.

Roads

Via Appia, a road connecting the city of Rome to the Southern parts of Italy remains usable even today.

The Romans primarily built roads for military purposes. They allowed the legions to be rapidly deployed in far reaches of the realm. However, their economic importance was probably also significant, although wagon traffic was often banned from the roads to preserve their military value. At its largest extent the total length of the Roman road network was 85 000 km (53 000 miles).

Way stations providing refreshments were maintained by the government at regular intervals along the roads. A separate system of changing stations for official and private couriers was also maintained. This allowed a dispatch to travel a maximum of 800 km (500 miles) in 24 hours by using a relay of horses.

The roads were constructed by digging a pit along the length of the intended course, often to bedrock. The pit was first filled with rocks, gravel or sand and then a layer of concrete. Finally they were paved with polygonal rock slabs. Roman roads are considered the most advanced roads built until the early 19th century. Bridges were constructed over waterways. The roads were resistant to floods and other environmental hazards. After the fall of the Roman empire the roads were still usable and used for more than 1000 years.

Aqueducts

The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites. The city of Rome itself was supplied by eleven aqueducts that provided the city with over 1 million cubic meters of water [1], suficient to supply 3.5 million people [2] and with combined length of 350 km (260 miles).^[3] Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface with only small portions above ground supported by arches. The longest Roman aqueduct, 141 km (87 miles) in length, was built to supply the city of Carthage.^[4]

Roman aqueducts were built to remarkably fine tolerances, and to a technological standard that was not to be equalled until modern times. Powered entirely by gravity, they transported very large amounts of water very efficiently. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 m had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to force water uphill.^[2]

Sanitation

The Roman public baths, or thermae served hygienic, social and cultural functions. The baths contained three main facilities for bathing. After undressing in the apodyterium or changing room, Romans would proceed to the tepidarium or warm room. In the moderate dry heat of the tepidarium, some performed warm-up exercises and stretched while others oiled themselves or had slaves oil them. The tepidarium’s main purpose was to promote sweating to prepare for the next room, the caldarium or hot room. The caldarium, unlike the tepidarium, was extremely humid and hot. Temperatures in the caldarium could reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Many contained steam baths and a cold-water fountain known as the labrum. The last room was the frigidarium or cold room, which offered a cold bath for cooling off after the caldarium.

The Romans also had flush toilets.

Science, logic, and mathematics

A reconstruction of a Roman abacus in the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.

If we define Roman by period then the stunning Antikythera mechanism is a Roman analogue computer.

The Romans developed the Roman abacus, the first portable counting device, based on earlier Greek counting boards. It greatly reduced the time needed to perform basic Roman arithmetic operations, and was used heavily by merchants, tax collectors and engineers. It was also used by rich schoolchildren, and another version was to help calculate the movement of the planets.

Roman numerals, the basis for Roman mathematics, were derived from the earlier Etruscan numerals.

Roman military technology

see

The Roman military had knowledge some of the most advanced technology available to armies of the time. This ranged from personal equipment and armament to deadly siege engines. They inherited almost all ancient weapons.

While heavy, intricate armour was not uncommon (cataphracts), the Romans perfected a relatively light, full torso armour made of segmented plates (lorica segmentata). This segmented armour provided flexibility and protection of most vital areas, and was not associated with the laborious craftwork that other armours (such as chainmail) were. Furthermore, the rest of the Roman soldier's equipment used similarly innovative and effective technology.

Roman siege engines such as ballistas, scorpions and onagers were not unique, but nonetheless were manufactured efficiently enough to provide support for the Roman legions.

List of Roman inventions and Roman-developed technologies

Roman abacus
Iron-bladed plough This is a much older innovation (e.g. Bible; I Samuel 13,20-1) that became much more common in the Roman period.
Wheeled plough Pliny Nat. His. 18.171-3 (More important for the middle ages, than this era.)
Early reaper i.e. harvesting machine - vallus; Pliny the Elder Nat. His. 18,296, Palladius 7.2.2-4 [5]
Pozzolana concrete
Glass blowing
Screw press
The pre-roman arch was stunningly developed to the dome e.g. the Pantheon
Rotary Grainmills - According to Moritz (p57) rotary grainmills were not known to the ancient Greeks but date from before 160 BC. Unlike reciprocating mills, rotary mills could be easily adapted to animal or water power. Lewis (1997) argues that the rotary grainmill dates to the 5th century BC in the western Mediterranean. Animal and water powered rotary mills came in the 3rd century BC.
Watermill - improvements upon earlier models. For the largest mill complex known[6]
Water powered reciprocating machines, i.e. trip hammers. Lewis presents good evidence that water powered vertical pounding machines came in by the middle of the 1st century AD for
- A fulling
- B grain hulling; Pliny Nat.His. (18,97)
- C ore crushing; archaeological evidence at Dolaucothi Gold Mines and Spain
Water powered stone saws by 370 AD, using horizontal reciprocation. Attested in Ausonius's poem Mosella; Translated [7]
- "the Ruwer sends mill-stones swiftly round to grind the corn, And drives shrill saw-blades through smooth marble blocks"
Glossed pottery i.e. Samian ware
Aqueduct
Sewers
Improvements in river navigation such as the towpath beside the Danube, see the "road" in Trajan's bridge
Bridges such as the Roman bridge in Chaves and the Severan Bridge and Trajan's bridge over the Danube.
Tunnels - the longest known is the 5.6km drain of the Fucine lake
Wide range of surgical instruments
Piston pump
Flamethrower (Is this Roman? trad date 670 AD Greek Fire)
Hard (sodium) soap, first mentioned by Galen,(earlier, potassium, soap being Celtic)
Hydrometer mentioned in a letter of Synesius
Dichroic glass as in the Lycurgus Cup [8] Note, this material attests otherwise unknown chemistry (or other way?) to generate nano-scale gold-silver particles.
Glass mirrors - Pliny the Elder Nat. His 33,130
one wheeled vehicles - soley attested by a Latin word in 4th C. AD Scriptores Historiae Augustae Heliogabalus 29. As this is fiction, the evidence dates to its time of writing.
Book or Codex - from 1st C. AD had many advantages over the scroll
Paddle wheel boats - possibly only a paper invention in de Rebus Bellicis see Ferries in antiquity
Iron tooth implants [9]
First(?) street map - the Forma Urbis Romae [10]
greenhouse cold frames Pliny Nat His. 19.64 Columella on Ag. 11.3.52
wood veneers Pliny Nat His 16.231-2
pewter was mentioned by Pliny (Nat. His. 34,160-1).Surviving examples are mainly Romano-British of the 3rd and 4th centuries e.g.[11] and[12]. Roman pewter had a wide range of proportions of tin but proportions of 50%, 75% and 95% predominate (Beagrie 1989).
A portable sundial see Theodosius of Bithynia
Fermented dry sausage (probably) see salami
Flos Salis a product of salt evaporation ponds (probably Dunaliella salina) used in the perfume industry (Pliny Nat. His. 31,90)

References

^ "De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae" by Sextus Julius Frontinus (On the water management of the city of Rome, translated by R. H. Rodgers, 2003, University of Vermont) (retrieved November 22, 2005)
^ ^a "Water and Wastewater Systems in Imperial Rome". WaterHistory.org. International Water History Association. Retrieved 2005-11-22. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
Beagrie Neil 1989 The Romano-British Pewter Industry Britannia vol.20 pp.169-91
Derry, Thomas Kingston and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. New York : Dover Publications, 1993.
Hodges, Henry. Technology in the Ancient World London: The Penguin Press, 1970.
Lewis M.J.T. 1997 Millstone and Hammer University of Hull Press
Moritz, L.A. 1958 Grainmills and Flour in Classical Antiquity, Oxford
Smith A.H.V. 1997 Provenance of Coals from Roman Sites in England and Wales Britannia vol.28 pp 297-324
Williams, Trevor I. A History of Invention From Stone Axes to Silicon Chips. New York, New York, Facts on File, 2000.

External links

Ongoing discussion on Roman technology: Roman Army Talk