Q- Discuss the contribution of Roman Civilization.
Or
Q- Discuss the Legacy of Roman Civilization.
Roman Civilization:
There are three peninsulas of Europe in the Mediterranean Sea – Aegean, Italy and Spain. Tiber is the most important river of Italy. The city of Rome is situated on the banks of this river. So The main center of Roman civilization was Italy. Italy seved as a link to collate the Greek and Roman cultures. He ideas of Greek and other old civilizations of east and west asia to reach Europe through Italy.
» The city of Rome was founded about 1000 BC by Romulus, in the district of Latium. The language of the ancient Romans, Latin,, gets its name from Latium.
The contribution of the Romans:
The rulers of Rome occupied Egypt, Babylon,Greece, western Europe and north America. In this way the people of Rome and western world came in contact with eastern civilization and contributed in the spread of ideas they recieved.
Law and the Governance:
The biggest contribution of Rome to the world is the law and the governance. It was began in the Rome with twelve tablets. As time passed, the law was developed in Rome in three branches civil law which was used in the cases of Roman citizens. The law of the common people, which was implemented with all the people of empire. and natural law, which was related mainly to the justice and philosophy of law. Many European and other countries are indebted to the ideas of Rome for the development of methods of law in their countries.
The rulers of Rome become able to establish centrally governed governance in their vast empire was only becasue their law and ruling system. When the Greeks could not get success in that. Because of the laws the travel and trade were encouraged. The exchange of trading commodities was reached up to Bharat and China. In south Bharat near Chennai, the place named Arikamedu was the Roman trading post. The system of roads connecting all parts of Rome was so good that an English proverb came in use that “All roads go to Rome”. The Roman people developed the spirit of republic. But the rulers of Rome used to make the people slave who were won by them so that actual democracy could not develop there.
Language, Philosophy and Literature:
The inhabitants of Rome learned the alphabets from Greeks, on the basis of that they developed their alphabets and the latin language became the language of all educated people of western Europe. Uptill to day many words of latin are used are from Latin. The basis of many European languages, French, Spainish, Italian etc is Latin.
The Roman aslo adopted the Greek philosophy. Epicurean and stoic philosphies were very popular in Rome. Lucretus who wrote the poetry” on the nature of Things’ he did not believe in the existance of soul, but supporter of pious heart and peace, not of the luxuries. Cicero was a famous orator. He as the followers of stoics recognized mental peace is best welfare of all. His biggest contribution was his concept of political and the natural law. According to Cicero the natural law was that, which can be known by logic and through which the natural rights of all the people may be protected. The best style of lecture he delivered in the senate is still followed today. Marcus Aurrilius was also the follower of stoic philosophy he wrote a book named “Meditation. He expressed his views in this book that how to live life. He was of the opinion that the aim of life is not comfort but it is the stability of mind.
He used to practice all those thing which he preaced. Although his powers were immense but he never lived the luxurious life. One more scholar who followd the stoic Philosophy was Seneca.
Literature was also developed in the Roman civilization and the poetry was sufficiently progressed. In the poetry of Horace the combination of Apicurean and stoic is found.
Virgil was also a renowned poet. His composition named “Aeneid’ is very famous. His style is like Greek epics Iliad and odyssey. In Aeneid, describes about the legendary hero named Aeneus in the siege of Troy and his travelling abroad and his carrageous deeds.
The most famous historian of Rome was Tacitus. He in his books ‘Annals’ and ‘Historys’ he described the anarchy and corruption of his time.
Architecture and other arts:
The Romans were skilled builders. They first started the use of concrete and they could join the pieces of bricks and stones firmly. They improved their architecture by creating arches and domes. There were two three stories in the buildings of Rome. and in them the arches were of round shape. These arches were used in constructing the gates of the town, bridges, big houses and victory memorials. The domes were like upturned bowl had been the roof of the building. This type of dome can be seen in the famous parthen temple of Rome.
The best examples of Roman engineering are their water management, baths and roads. The water pipes were fixed to provide water to the people of Rome and other cities. Few pipes among these were 70 km. long.
Romans also developed their sculpture similar to Greek architecture but there was a difference in these two. The Greeks used to make the statues to express their ideals but the Roman used this art to show the man in reality. The Romans also developed the art of wall paintings (Frescos) by which the entire wall was painted.
Science:
Rome was first to take initiative towards public services. They managed to provide free medicines to the people at very first. The second gift of Romans was their calender, which with some changed form prevailing in all the countries today. But it can be said that calender wsa not their original contribution because its fundamental principles were demonstrated in Bharat, China and Egypt prior to Rome.
In modern western calender the names of few months were taken from the name of Caesers. July from Julius Caeser, August from Augustus and september, October, November and December are words of Latin language that means seventh, Eightth. nineth, tenth and so on. These names were meaningful when the Roman new year was to begin from March.
Conclusion –
In this way, we see that various elements of Roman civilization – political structure, art and architecture, language, literature, religion, especially Christianity, philosophy, science etc. had a wide impact on the later western civilization. Trevor says that the present Western civilization represents the soul of Roman civilization in terms of its characteristics. According to Will Durant, “Rome conquered the Mediterranean world, adopted its culture and gave it order, prosperity and peace for two hundred years and protected it from the barbarians for more than two hundred years and before its death transferred the classical heritage to the West.”
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