5 Inventions You Didn’t Realize Came From Ancient Rome

Rome’s influence on the world was both widespread and long-lasting. The Romans were great innovators and inventors, sometimes appropriating and advancing aspects from other cultures, and other times inventing entirely new technologies and systems. These innovations covered a wide range of fields, including state institutions, cultural practices, and engineering techniques. The Roman Empire eventually fell in 476 CE, but its legacy and influence carried on — all the way to the present day. Some of Rome’s most famous innovations, such as sanitation systems and road networks, are well known and still very much in evidence; in the United Kingdom, for example, many modern roads still follow the routes laid down by the Romans. Other Roman innovations, however, are more obscure. Here are five inventions that continue to shape our modern world, but that many people don’t realize originated in ancient Rome.