Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - Hackettstown School District

Ch.6.5
Rome and the
Roots of Western
Civilization
Objectives
• Know and understand the contributions Rome made to
Western culture.
• Artistic
• Legal
• Architectural
• Language
• Technology/engineering
• Write these down! You can count on an
essay regarding these points!!!
Classical civilization
• Greco-Roman culture or the mix of Greek,
Hellenistic, and Roman influences.
• Bear in mind that the Roman Empire spanned a
wide expanse of territory and incorporated a
number of cultures. Just as Roman culture
influences them, they influence Rome and a
whole new mix comes out.
• Your understanding of the term “classical” is
key to your understanding the Renaissance!
Fine arts
• Greek sculpture emphasized the ideal human form.
Roman sculpture presented more realistic
representations of people. The Romans were
practically-minded, after all.
From This…
To This
• Bas-relief
• Type of sculpture with figures that project from a
flat background. Often used to tell stories.
Bas-relief of a
play
Trajan’s
Column
Mosaics
• Very intricate
and made by
many small
tiles.
Close-up of a mosaic.
Pompeii
August 24,
AD 79
What Rome gave us… (continued)
• Language
• Latin became the basis for the
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian,
Romanian, and French languages –
the Romance languages.
• Started off as just bad Latin, but then
established themselves as separate languages.
• Architecture
• Many important buildings, like government
buildings, use neo-Classical architecture. Like say,
the U.S. Capitol Building.
The
columns,
the dome,
the arches.
The Romans were also big on the arch.
• It’s an extremely efficient weight-bearing
structure.
• You see them a lot in their aqueducts, for
example.
Aqueducts
The aqueducts were used to supply Rome with
water and were engineering marvels.
• They supplied Rome with nearly 300 million
gallons of water a day. That’s for a population of
just 1 million. That makes for about 300 gallons
of water per day per person.
• The Pantheon- dedicated to all the gods of the
empire (not to confused with the Parthenon of Athens)
• The roads and road system were also engineering
marvels, but we’ve already talked about them.
• Law
• The Twelve Tables of the early Roman Republic were
created to protect the rights of the plebeians (poor).
• Cicero claimed that he learned them by heart as a
boy in school, but that no one did so any longer.
(Sound familiar?)
• Dealt mainly with the rights of individuals.
• Rights under the law.
• Innocent until proven guilty.
• Burden of proof on accuser.
• Punishment for actions.
• The legal system also became basis of most
Western countries’ legal systems.
Would you be able to write an
essay explaining Rome’s
influence on Western
Civilization?
I hope so…