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The water was used for hydraulic mining, where streams or waves of water are released onto the hillside, first to reveal any gold-bearing ore, and then to work the ore itself. Rock debris could be sluiced away by hushing, and the water also used to douse fires created to break down the hard rock and veins, a method known as fire-setting.
The Romans recycled public bath waste water by using it as part of the flow that flushed the latrines. Terra cotta piping was used in the plumbing that carried waste water from homes. The Romans were the first to seal pipes in concrete to resist the high water pressures developed in siphons and elsewhere.
The Battle of the Caudine Forks showed the clumsiness of the Roman phalanx against the Samnites. The Romans had originally employed the phalanx themselves [25] but gradually evolved more flexible tactics. The result was the three-line Roman legion of the middle period of the Roman Republic, the Manipular System. Romans used a phalanx for their ...
Calcium is a binding agent in Roman concrete, which makes it remarkably strong. Figuring out where it came from was the key to solving this architectural mystery.
[34] [35] Roman authors were not the only people to praise the Cloaca Maxima. British writer Henry James stated that it gave him: "the deepest and grimmest impression of antiquity I have ever received." The system of Roman sewers was much imitated throughout the Roman Empire, especially when combined with copious supplies of water from Roman ...
Scheme of the water-driven Roman sawmill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor. The Hierapolis sawmill was a Roman water-powered stone saw mill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Dating to the second half of the 3rd century AD, [5] the sawmill is the earliest known machine to combine a crank with a connecting rod. [6]
The scutum (Classical Latin: [ˈskuːt̪ʊ̃]; pl.:scuta) was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. [1] The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of the hoplite phalanx of the Greeks to the formation with maniples (Latin ...
When invading enemy territories, the Roman army would often construct roads as it went, to allow swift reinforcement and resupply, or for easy retreat if necessary. Roman road-making skills were such that some survive today. Michael Grant credits the Roman building of the Via Appia with winning them the Second Samnite War. [3]