Ch.6.5

Rome and the Roots of Western

Civilization

Objectives• Know and understand the contributions Rome made to

Western culture.

• Artistic

• Legal

• Architectural

• Language

• Technology/engineering

• Write these down! You can count on an essay regarding these points!!!

Classical civilization• Greco-Roman culture or the mix of Greek,

Hellenistic, and Roman influences.

• Bear in mind that the Roman Empire spanned a wide expanse of territory and incorporated a number of cultures. Just as Roman culture influences them, they influence Rome and a whole new mix comes out.

• Your understanding of the term “classical” is key to your understanding the Renaissance!

Fine arts• Greek sculpture emphasized the ideal human form.

Roman sculpture presented more realistic representations of people. The Romans were practically-minded, after all.

From This…To This

• Bas-relief

• Type of sculpture with figures that project from a flat background. Often used to tell stories.

Trajan’s Column

Bas-relief of a play

Mosaics

• Very intricate and made by many small tiles.

Close-up of a mosaic.

Pompeii

August 24, AD 79

What Rome gave us… (continued)

• Language• Latin became the basis for the

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and French languages – the Romance languages.• Started off as just bad Latin, but then

established themselves as separate languages.

• Architecture• Many important buildings, like government buildings,

use neo-Classical architecture. Like say, the U.S. Capitol Building.

The columns, the dome, the arches.

The Romans were also big on the arch.• It’s an extremely efficient weight-bearing

structure.

• You see them a lot in their aqueducts, for example.

AqueductsThe aqueducts were used to supply Rome with

water and were engineering marvels.

• They supplied Rome with nearly 300 million gallons of water a day. That’s for a population of just 1 million. That makes for about 300 gallons of water per day per person.

• The Pantheon- dedicated to all the gods of the empire (not to confused with the Parthenon of Athens)

• The roads and road system were also engineering marvels, but we’ve already talked about them.

• Law• The Twelve Tables of the early Roman Republic were

created to protect the rights of the plebeians (poor).

• Cicero claimed that he learned them by heart as a boy in school, but that no one did so any longer. (Sound familiar?)

• Dealt mainly with the rights of individuals.

• Rights under the law.

• Innocent until proven guilty.

• Burden of proof on accuser.

• Punishment for actions.

• The legal system also became basis of most Western countries’ legal systems.

Would you be able to write an essay explaining Rome’s

influence on Western Civilization?

I hope so…