# The great inventions of ancient Rome

Concrete still standing 2,000 years later, 400,000 kilometres of roads, underfloor heating, the first newspaper and even a shopping mall: what the Romans invented or perfected. Which was the most important?

- 88 votes · 14 items
- Jun 14, 2025 · Federico Quiroga Giménez
- https://even.best/en/l/3467/the-great-inventions-of-ancient-rome

## Top 14

1. **Trajan's Market** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Around AD 110, more than 150 shops and offices: a shopping mall.
2. **Roads** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — A network of more than 400,000 kilometres, built in layers.
3. **The cursus publicus** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — The state postal service, with relay stations to cover up to 80 kilometres a day.
4. **Aqueducts** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — They carried water to the cities of the Empire using gravity alone.
5. **The Roman arch** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — It made bridges, aqueducts and great buildings possible.
6. **The hypocaust** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Heating with hot air under the floor and inside the walls.
7. **The Acta Diurna** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Around 59 BC, public notices posted in the Forum: the first newspaper.
8. **The curule chair** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — The folding, portable seat of magistrates.
9. **Roman concrete** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Lime, water and volcanic ash: structures still standing today.
10. **Insulae** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — Apartment blocks six or seven storeys high for city dwellers.
11. **The codex** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Pages stacked and bound along one edge: the ancestor of the book, replacing the scroll.
12. **The Cloaca Maxima** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — The great sewer that carried wastewater into the Tiber.
13. **Surgical instruments** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Forceps, scalpels and bone drills.
14. **The "bikini"** (0 · ▲2 ▼2) — Mosaics show women exercising in two-piece garments.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.