Greek and Roman Civilization

Greek and Roman CivilizationIn buildings of Mycenae, were handled huge stone blocks, up to 120 tons. Also dominated the false arch, a technique that has excelled in the field of engineering. This principle is used in underground construction, as tombs and cellars, and the superficial, for railway bridges and aqueducts.
EngineeringThe Greeks of Athens and Sparta, not noted for their creativity and ingenuity, but by the development of ideas. His greatest contribution was the discovery that nature has general laws of behavior.The first engineer recognized in the Greek world was Pytheos, builder of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, who combined three elements here: the high pedestal of the column, the Greek temple and Egyptian burial mound.Other important engineers were Dinocrates, the glider Alexandria, Sostratus, who built the lighthouse, Archimedes and Heron Cresibius, the inventor of the steam turbine.The best engineers of antiquity were the Romans, but often lacked originality of thought, were remarkable at the time of applying the techniques, among which stand out the way they used on bridges and aqueducts.Apart from the substantial bridges aqueducts, visible in Europe and Asia, which are famous examples of the aguaducho Segovia or the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, with 50 m high and 300 long, the highly significant famous imperial roads like Via Appia and the Via Flaminia, Italy spanning longitudinally. At the height of Roman power, the road network covered 290,000 km. from Scotland to Persia.The degree of development of Roman engineering, is reflected in the implementation of the same in the military arts and navigation issues, adequacy of ports and harbors.Roman engineering foundation was written, as in the book De Architectura of Vitruvius, was escreto in Rome in the first century after Christ.When power shifted from Rome to Byzantium in the sixth century AD, Roman engineering was adapted to new demands and new forms of construction arose in that the Byzantines outnumbered Egyptians, Greeks and Romans developed the principle of the arch and used in a dome supported at corners of a square tower. A notable example of this is the Cathedral of St. Sophia.