WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS DONE FOR US?
At its height, the Roman Empire was sprawled out over more than five million square kilometres. It was the main state on the Mediterranean Sea, and reached as far north as Scotland. It stretched down into North Africa and came to dominate the Middle East and beyond. A nation that big never really disappears – its culture and traditions seep into the people and the landscape, leaving a legacy that can never truly be scrubbed out.
A lot of Roman ways did disappear over time: paganism died out, with temples being converted into churches or falling into disrepair; gladiators stopped battling it out in the arenas; and phalluses stopped being used as lucky charms. But the Romans had been around so long, and their customs proved to be impossible to leave behind. It’s nigh on impossible to count the ways in which the Romans shaped modern Europe both physically and culturally, so here are just ten of the multitude of things that they left behind after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
ROADS
How to travel around Europe
Not all roads lead to Rome, but some made by the Romans are still
