What have the Romans ever done for us?

March 28, 2005 5:56 AM

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Brought peace? Oh. Peace? Shut up!
posted by gimonca (15 comments total)

since i'm currently enrolled in Pre-Modern World right now, and studying a bit of Roman History, good post!
posted by Mach5 at 6:14 AM on March 28, 2005

oh, and roads
posted by Mach5 at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2005

Don't forget the showers, and the adventures of Caecilius.
posted by phirleh at 6:38 AM on March 28, 2005

Romanes Eunt Domus!
posted by orthogonality at 6:49 AM on March 28, 2005

Also, the dimensions of the Space Shuttle's solid booster rockets.
posted by danherwig at 6:52 AM on March 28, 2005

And the notion that one city-state creating a massive military machine and using it to conquer and oppress the rest of the world is a wondrous and glorious thing. Well, okay, they didn't quite invent the idea. But they certainly did an excellent job of promoting it.
posted by Clay201 at 7:11 AM on March 28, 2005

danherwig: that is most cool--thanks!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:11 AM on March 28, 2005

"People called Romani they go the house?"
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:16 AM on March 28, 2005

Didn't they kill Jesus?
posted by nathanrudy at 7:31 AM on March 28, 2005

One of the funniest scenes in all of movie history, right up there with the warroom in Dr. Strangelove. Those two films really sit at the top of the humor pile for my tastes.
posted by the_savage_mind at 7:35 AM on March 28, 2005

Hehe, Bigus Dickus.
posted by furtive at 7:44 AM on March 28, 2005

Sure, if you're a Roman. Kind of sucked for the conquered people who were enslaved though.
posted by destro at 8:05 AM on March 28, 2005

Roman slavery. The consensus seems to be that it was not "as bad" as other slavery of the time--but they all say that, don't they?
posted by LarryC at 9:04 AM on March 28, 2005

Heh. Watched this last night. Coincidence? He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.
posted by fatllama at 9:05 AM on March 28, 2005

I think this is a dangerous logic to go down, as it's used as the reasoning for the current pax romana.

a) If Greece is the number one developer of wine, and then Rome conquers them, is that really Rome that responsible for developing the wine?

Wine growing was less important to the Romans...

Essentially it's giving credit to Rome for it's minions' work.


b) The credit for developing water systems and roads is definitely something that wouldn't have happened without Rome -- and it's large slave population. For "us", the people of today, this has done a lot, but for most of the people enslaved by Rome, I don't think it was that great. They probably could have lived much better lives without the roads.

c) as far as culture goes, their conquering probably disolved a lot of history - they really didn't have much of a culture of their own, just the stuff they duplicated from the Greeks.

d) Pax romana - peace through war. hmmmm
posted by destro at 12:50 PM on March 28, 2005