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History of Technology 2: Roman Roads 507 Views
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Description:
What's the big deal with roads? Like, they all lead to Rome? Not everyone wants to go to Rome. You heard it here first: roads are overrated.
Transcript
- 00:04
They used to say that all roads lead to Rome well that may [Ancient romans on a street]
- 00:08
have been because the Romans built most of the road and it wouldn't have made
- 00:12
much sense for the Romans to build fancy roads for other empires right well they
- 00:16
were more into chopping off their rivals head than contributing to their [Roman chops off enemies head]
- 00:19
infrastructure maybe that would have changed had they traveled with Snickers
Full Transcript
- 00:24
instead the Romans built an awesome network of paved road to keep
- 00:29
their empire connected and under their control no other empire came close to
- 00:33
Rome's Road building skills in fact Roman roads were so awesome that some [People taking photographs of roman roads]
- 00:38
are still around today and we bet those road's have some ego.
- 00:42
So how did the Romans pull it off well first they would raise a mount of dirt
- 00:47
so that the road would be above the surrounding land no point in building a [A road and rain begins to fall]
- 00:52
nice new road if the first rain turned it into a swamp unless that was what
- 00:56
you're known for in which case like why then the Romans dug several feet into
- 01:01
the center of the dirt pile and filled it with crushed rock this was also to [Romans pile road with crushed rock]
- 01:05
help with the rain as the gravel allowed rainwater to filter down through it the
- 01:09
Romans last major trick was a real doozy they figured out how to make concrete
- 01:15
yep pretty cool they paved every major road with a mix of concrete and gravel [Concrete being processed]
- 01:20
this beat the heck out of having to carve out big paving stones..Well, Roman
- 01:25
Road building slaves were probably thankful for this, but they probably
- 01:28
would have been a little more thankful to you know not be slaves... Though the
- 01:33
Roman Empire had fifty thousand miles of Kings Road at its peak but why did the
- 01:38
Romans spend so much time building these beauties well here a few of the reasons [Romans building new roads]
- 01:42
first of all bureaucracy needs roads and Empire's need bureaucrats the Roman
- 01:46
Empire was big and kept getting bigger like a pro bodybuilder drowning the old
- 01:51
chickens at every meal while maintaining such a huge empire required an army of [Roman army marching in the woods]
- 01:56
bureaucrats tax collectors messengers judges city officials, the works.. Were
- 02:03
they expected to get around on dirt roads no way those bureaucrats couldn't [Judge approaches dirty road and stops]
- 02:07
show up to do their bureaucrating all dusty
- 02:10
could they? Well besides bureaucrats great empires also need armies and it's not
- 02:15
like all those other people's across the Mediterranean world were going to
- 02:20
conquer themselves it usually took a little head-chopping for the Romans to [Roman soldiers beheading people]
- 02:24
convince them to you know be part of the Roman Empire a good option...Rome had a
- 02:31
large and highly professional army and good roads also made it a fast army
- 02:35
this helps them keep their subjects in check any rebellion in Roman dudes could
- 02:41
be there in a jiff and complete the head chop and quickly and effectively.. We're [Roman soldiers march in and chop mans head off]
- 02:45
sure they got five-star reviews on Yelp Rome's roads also help to make it filthy
- 02:50
rich well the easier transportation was easier trade was and the easier it was to gain [Tax man asking man for money]
- 02:57
and collect taxes and the more money flowing into Rome the easier it was to
- 03:02
build fancy marble buildings and statues of naked people pro-tip; statues of
- 03:07
naked people are the number one sign that you've made it in life but last but
- 03:12
not least Rome needed roads to help deliver the mail good communication is [Mail van driving down a cobbled road]
- 03:17
essential in keeping the Empire running smoothly
- 03:19
and in the days before email good roads were a total necessity come rain sleet
- 03:24
snow or barbarians the Romans needed to you know get their mail all junk mail
- 03:30
course was met with instant beheading and what can we say the Caesars
- 03:33
hated getting coupons [Monster beheads Caesar]
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