The Lost Secrets of Rome OR Great, Now We'll Have to Learn It All Over Again!

Some time around 2,500 years ago, an upstart republic started trading, negotiating, and generally bullying their way into an empire. On the way it picked up and made up an impressive array of technology the likes of which that part of the world had never seen. When that empire collapsed around 400 AD, that part of the world stopped seeing it for around 1,000 years.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm talking about Rome, yo.

Yo.

Whilst doing research on various topics for various writing assignments, I've starting to stumble across a fascinating trend with Roman advancements:

They came up with a lot of stuff that pretty much disappeared from Europe. Seriously. Most of this stuff didn't begin to show up again until the Renaissance.

Right back atcha, Caesar.

What's funny is that a lot of this stuff is still used today. Sure, we use upgraded materials, fancy techniques, and machines instead of slaves, but the basics are still very similar.

Some of these you may have already heard about:

Plumbing. Complete with poisonous lead pipes.
(Which, by the way, we used until the mid-20th century.)

Indoor Sewers/Bathrooms
Men still use troughs like that at stadiums.

Aqueducts. Sometimes stretching hundreds of miles.
Notice these are closed, unlike the aqueducts in California.

But there were some other technologies that kind of blew my mind. Not only because they had them waaaayyy earlier than I thought Europeans did, but because they all completely disappeared from Europe for hundreds of years.

Like concrete. The Romans used it to built all sorts of things, like enormous, river-spanning works that still stand to this day.

The Pont du Gard aqueduct in France.
That's right: They built a river OVER a river.

And if you've been to Rome, you've probably seen the Pantheon (and the "classy" McDonalds right across from it), or at least seen it on your guidebook maps.

This guy.
(This picture taken from right in front of the McDonalds.)

The Pantheon is STILL the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. And that title's pretty secure, since modern building codes require rebar.

You and your building codes can go to Hades!

"If they're so cool," asks Cynical Reader, "Then why is everything gray and boring?"

News flash, CR: They weren't. Turns out all of those buildings were brightly painted, the paint just wore away over thousands of years. Don't believe me? Check out the paintings from Pamplona that were protected from erosion.

Not gray.
Also, not sure what they're doing,
but there's way too much nudity for it to be boring.

Like the Renaissance, the Romans were fans of paintings with nude figures, or at least figures with diaphanous clothing. Maybe it's because they kept their houses so warm using their underfloor heating systems.

Seriously. They called them hypocausts, and they were designed to heat the houses by heating the tiles that made the floors. Modern systems are doing this using plumbing and electric wires as an efficient and green heating method.

The Romans used slaves.
The system clearly still had some bugs in it.

For those of you who like industrial machines (and honestly, who doesn't?), the Romans also had incredible advancements in construction machines. Like the pile driver.

More sophisticated than the later "Big Man with Big Hammer" system.

"Still," says Cynical Reader. "They didn't have our modern socio-economic infrastructure. You know, like shopping malls."

Firstly, CR, I'm a little sad you brought that up as your objection. Secondly, BAM:

Ladies and Gentlemen: Trajan's Forum.
The world's first shopping mall.

You read that correctly. Trajan's Forum had space for apartments up top and shops on the bottom. Various arcades allowed people to connect to different areas and go to totally different shops right next door to each other. There were also central gathering areas where food vendors set up. You know, like a food court.

So next time you go to the mall, make sure you wear a toga and sandals. If anyone asks, just tell them you're kickin' it old school Trajan style.

Make sure you don't mention me when they throw you out.