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The ancient Romans are remembered today mostly for their armies and huge structures. It is well that they should be, because their army was incredible as was their talents for building. As a matter of fact, the Roman army was the first army to have standard equipment. If a soldier lost a sword during battle, he could bend down and pick up another, that was the exact duplicate, off a fallen comrade. This was very helpful. You may wonder why? It was helpful because this is what the soldier trained with. The Roman sword or Gladius was a short sword only 24 inches long, yet it has been called the deadliest killing weapon ever created up to the time of the gun. It has been debated for centuries whether this sword was made of iron or steel and this debate still goes on. There would only be the difference of 1% more carbon to make the iron into steel as the iron contained .5% carbon while the steel needs 1.5% carbon. The reason this blade was so deadly was that it was wide and short. This allowed it to be swung around during battle while the mostly longer swords of the enemies of Rome couldn't be used to easily in close combat. So the secret of this effective weapon was it's length, and it's width added to it's weight allowing it to come down hard or thrust hard.

The huge structures that the Romans built were unique in the fact that most are marvels of engineering. No one in the history of the world, up to that time, had even thought of building structures such as these. If the Romans needed water piped into a city they would build an aqueduct that might stretch hundreds of miles to do it. I think I can safely say that the quality of the construction was so high that some of it is better than what we build today. So how does one prove a statement such as this? You just have to look at how some of these ancient Roman structures are not only still standing but some are actually still being used. Sections of ancient Roman roads are still being traveled on. Why is it that the modern roads have a life space of only about 20 years and then they have to be repaved? Some of the Roman aqueducts are still in use carrying water for thirsty people. Where did the Romans get the idea for aqueducts from?

The ancient Romans were not the first to build aqueducts but they were the first to make them span large distances. They had already been built in Persia, India, Egypt and in other areas in the middle east, so I suppose that is where the idea for them came from. Word gets around I suppose, even in the ancient world, and someone in Rome must have thought, wow, we could use this to provide water to many of our cities. After all, without a source of water nearby, you couldn't really have a city.

But Romans also excelled at the little things, the things many of us take for granted today. Some Romans were living better in their time then many of the world's people live today. This is a scary fact, isn't it? The Romans developed toilets. They weren't as sophisticated as ours today, but they worked fine. The whole idea was to build a toilet over a channel that water could run through washing away the waste. They even had pay toilets. The one area that Romans were not too big in was privacy. You might find several toilets one right next to the other. At one point they even put a tax on the pay toilet. When someone asked the Emperor how can you tax toilets, he replied that there was nothing dirty about the money he collected.

As everyone knows, the Romans loved to bathe. Not only were bath houses places to bathe and get a massage, but they were also social gathering places. The rich would have similar baths in their homes. What was so unique about these baths and even the homes, was that many were heated. Can you imagine heated homes and baths over 2,000 years ago? Wood furnaces constructed under the floor or under the baths would supply the heat and it was the slave's job to make sure that the flame was always burning. The Romans did not care for the way that some of the ancient Greeks bathed. For example, Spartan tubs were constructed in such a way that the Spartan would climb in and stand up and have a slave dump cold water over his head and then he would hop out, the quicker the better. Some of the homes were constructed in such a way that natural cooling could take place during the heat of the day. Spaces between the wall would allow cooler air to flow by. This was a sort of Roman air conditioning, thought not to be confused with true air conditioning.

The Romans didn't know about germs but they did know that when you allowed sewerage to get into your drinking water people got sick and some died. The Romans were great plumbers. They developed lead pipes to channel water, as a matter of fact the Roman word plumbus means lead. With these pipe systems, the first truly modern method for controlling water had been invented. They even created a type of earthen clay pipe that would allow other clay pipes to be fitted over it. They employed a sort of mass production to create them. Even steam systems were being put into use. The Romans built sewers with pipes to carry away waste, much the same as sewer systems today. Of course today we have sewage treatment plants and don't just put our sewage into the water. Populations were much lower then and not everyone used this method, so the impact of dumping raw sewage was nowhere what it would be today.

The Romans did not always invent the way they did things, but if they didn't, they certainly improved it. Why was this race of people so advanced compared to the rest of the world? No one can really answer this question. I think that since most Romans traveled, whether with the military or on business trips or sailed the seas transporting cargo, they got to see how the rest of the world lived. When they saw something that amazed them or something they thought they could use, they adopted it. Of course this is only a theory, but I guess it is as good as any.