The Roman's Lasting Contributions

      First of all, let me tell you one thing. THERE ARE A LOT OF CONTRIBUTIONS THAT THE ROMANS HAVE MADE! So, do not expect me to list every single contribution that the Romans have made. So- here are the contributions that the Romans have made to our modern society.

      The Roman government always thought of the importance of its citizen's rights. This idea then led to the Enlightment thinkers (during the early 1800's) to question their governments. The Enlightment thinkers' ideas then led to the American colonists rebelling against its rulers. Those events then led to the Revolutionary War ( if you  are an american and you don't know what the Revolutionary War then good luck to you), the Revolutionary War then led to the American Independence. Which then formed the United States of America. So the Romans had a big role in our modern society.

The White House in Washington D.C.

     Roman art, architecture, and engineering is also a big part of our modern world nowadays too. Even though our modern replicas might not be as grand as the original Romans'. The art that was created by the romans were very much inspiring and greatly  appreciated by the artists and people during the Renaissance period (the period of renewal interests in the ancient worlds).Even to this day, Roman art pieces are still very much appreciated. The Roman architecture still influence our building styles to this day too. When you see a set of the columns near the entrance of an building (usually government buildings) then that building probably was influenced by the Roman architecture (also a mix of Greek). An example of a building that was influenced by the Romans (and Greek) is the White House in Washington D.C. (picture shown on the right).Moving onto the Roman engineering, the Roman's engineering ways do influence our engineering as well. The Romans created the water aqueducts. The Romans also created excellent roads and bridges too. Actually, some of the roads and bridges built about 2,000 years ago are still in use. They are that stable! Their engineering skills have helped influence our roads and bridges too.

      Now, we will move onto how the Romans helped spread the religion of Christianity. When the followers of Christianity first entered Rome, the emperor thought that they were rebels since the Christians would not worship the Roman gods. So, thousands of Christians were tortured, killed, and arrested. Some were even thrown into pens with lions for public entertainment. However, the remaining Christians did not give up their religion that easily. These Christians would meet in catacombs (underground tunnels that were used as burial places). Constantine was the first Roman emperor to accept Christianity. During one of the battles, Constantine sent his troops into war with the Chi-Ro symbol (Christian symbol). Do you know what happened? His troops won the war. So Constantine then became a Christian. In the the year of A.D 312, Constantine made Christianity legal. Then in A.D 391, emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion in Rome.

      As you can see from the many words in this post, the Romans do influence our modern world a lot. Their art helped inspire renaissance artists to create many beautiful paintings and sculptures. There architecture influences our buildings and building style as well. Also their engineering skills. You cannot disagree with the fact that their engineering skills were awesome and ingenious either. I mean, come on those roads and bridges are still used to this day. Those roads and bridges are almost 2,000 years old. I don't know about you, but I do not know anything that is still in use after all of those years. All in all, you have to say that if we didnt have the Romans then we might not be what we are now.

- ThePersonFromMars