What does Roman history has on our collective imagination?

Answer 1

Among the common imageries there are the soldiers and the conquering Roman legions, the gladiatorial contests, the chariot races, the stone-paved roads, the aqueducts, the baths, the villas and the mosaics, the statues and slavery. There is also a stereotype about the decadence of the Romans which lead to the fall of their empire and rich Romans stuffing themselves with rich foods while reclining. The Romans are also noted as having been very good engineers.
Besides the stereotypes, the Roman have left important legacies 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.

The key principles of Roman civil law have provided the foundation or an inspiration for the law of many modern countries. These are: citizenship status and citizenship rights, equality under the law, nobody is above the law, the right to have a proper trial, the right to defend oneself and to be represented, the right to appeal, that the burden of proof rests on the accuser and not on the accused, that it is the exact form of actions and not intentions or words which is punishable, and that a law deemed unreasonable or unfair can be repealed.

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.