RE: What if religion never had a "breakthrough"?
December 4, 2012 at 10:38 pm
(This post was last modified: December 4, 2012 at 10:44 pm by jonb.)
(December 4, 2012 at 9:45 pm)Polaris Wrote: The Romans invented and built upon advancements with artillery, but they are most known for their contributions to language and law....they were more politicians than inventors.
Artillery er no. They did not invent any artillery, as for development there is no evidence, the things they had were just copies of others templates. Think of this in the entire history of the Empire although they had roads, nobody thought of putting a wheel on one, these people had no idea of invention. I can remember reading Livy who all, but accused the Celts of cheating because they had carts with four wheels, a technology beyond the Romans at that time
Contributions to Language. Even this which if anything a people should be able to claim as their own the Romans claim to it is doubtful. The Romans it is commonly accepted were a Greek colony and this is their own myth about themselves that they were descendants of the Trojans. So is Latin an Ionic Greek language at its root. No, its Etruscan and other Italian tongues so they even fail in that regard.
The law, a system of law which keep the rich rich and the poor poor. It is commonly claimed that modern law derives from Roman originals, but this is far from true, Sure Alfred the great tacked on to the end of his laws in English copies of Roman laws, but that was just to make it seem he was instep with Rome, (the church), but that part of English law was not used. Only after the Normans invaded and found the Saxons who were at the time the most literate people in Europe because of statutory public education. Stopped all courts from using English, and insisted on Norman French, did that part of the old law books get even a look in, but as the Norman judges were not the best educated people, the actual law dispensed was based on case history, not a Roman template.
There is even a strong case for large parts of Roman law that it was copied from far better developed Celtic laws. If you really want to stand by the case of Roman law having any influence you could sight Cicero, and his use of slur, slander, and paid witnesses to win his cases, that there is some influence on modern law, but are you really going to rest your proposition on that?
