How does Ancient Rome have such an impact on the world?

Answer 1

Languages: Every Romance languages have developed from Latin; Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. We also use Latin language itself for medical and scientical language, and we have many words and terms in romance and other languages which have derived straight from Latin (etc. etc.= Et cetera)

Alphabets: Ancient Romans developed Latin alphabets from Greek alphabets and they have spreaded around the world (Also worlds second most popular font, Trajan is developed from Roman stone carved letters in Trajan column).

Politics: Roman style politics are still used today, like the ancient senate and todays parliaments.

Religion: Roman emperor Konstantinus (Constantine) the Great made Christianity the state religion in Roman Empire and stopped the haunting of christians. Christianity would not be as wide spreaded and popular religion today without Roman empire.

Countries of Europe: Roman empire was divided into governmental provinces and their boundaries are really similar to the new sovereign states; the provinces developed to the modern countries through history (Italia = Italy, Gallia = France, Britannia = Great Britain, Germania = Germany, Hispania = Spain, Lusitania = Portugal, Helvetia = Switzerland, Thracia = Bulgaria, Dacia = Romania).

Cities of Europe: Romans founded numerous cities around the Europe which are still in use nowdays. They also build plumbing and aquaeducts which were better than any other sanitary systems until the 1900-th century.

Infrastructure: Roman legionaries builded excellent roads around the empire and some of them are still used in their original condition, when most of them are now covered with modern roads. Also infrastructure and zoning of the modern cities derived from Roman times.

Military strategies: Some of Rome's greatest generals are widely known and their strategies are adapted in the part of the modern warfare.

Art: Renessaince art wouldn't be without ancient Greek and Roman art, architecture, sculpting etc. Even today we use ancient art and architecture motifs.

Symbols: Eagle standards, red flags, laurel wreaths, eagle wing and thunderbolt motifs, fasces' are all Roman symbols which are in use of flags, coat of arms', logos, symbols and art motifs. Napoleon and Hitler, who both admired Roman empire, adopted Roman symbolism and used in their own countries (In coat of arms, military standards etc.).

Names: Many modern names was derived from Latin names (Marcus, Julius, Lucius, Paulus, Victor, Maria, Julia, Lucia, Victoria)

Rome also offers us a very long and interesting time of history, which we can examine and make books and movies of it etc.

Answer 2

You can see this through the main legacies of the Romans in religion, the alphabet, language, the calendar, law, architecture and literature.

Christianity developed from a religion among a small group of Jews (who lived in Judea, which was part of the Roman Empire) into a mass religion in the Roman days. It spread around the Roman Empire. It became state religion. Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity developed during the Later Roman Empire. They were originally called Latin or Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity respectively. The former was the main form of Christianity in the western part of the Roman Empire and the latter was the main form of Christianity in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

Western European languages have adopted and adapted the Latin alphabet. The only letters in the English language which do not come from the Latin alphabet are J, U and W.

Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian are languages derived from Latin (Romance languages). Many Latin words or words of Latin origin have entered English via two routes. One was that Latin was the language of the church in the Middle Ages. The other was the Norman conquest of England. French became the court language and many French words entered into the English language. These words are usually of Latin origin.

Many international words in medicine, law and theology are Latin.

The calendar we use is the Gregorian calendar. It is named after the minor modifications made by the calendar instituted by Julius Caesar (Julian calendar) by Pope Gregory XII in 1582. Therefore, we basically use the Roman calendar. We also use translations of the Roman names for the months.

Roman law became influential through the Corpus Juris Civilis, a collection of books which reviewed imperial laws going back 400 years (to the time of Hadrian) and was commissioned by the emperor Justinian I. It scrapped obsolete or unnecessary laws, made changes when necessary and clarified obscure passages. Its aim was to put the laws into books (previously they were written on many different scrolls), harmonise conflicting views among jurists which arose from centuries of poorly organised development of Roman law and have a uniform and coherent body of law. It was rediscovered in a library in Pisa in 1070. It became the foundation of the training of the nascent profession of lawyers in Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It has been used to compile the civil law of many modern nations.

The Romans influenced European architecture, sculpture and painting until the early 20th century. They influenced the art of the Renaissance (14th-15th century) Baroque (17th-18th century) and Neoclassicism (18th-20th century, and is still sometimes used today). Palladian architecture was also based on Roman architecture. It was popular from the 17th century to the 20th century and was often used for public buildings. Latin literature was very influential in European literature until the mid-20th century.