Roman Inventions Facts for Kids – 5 Reliable Facts about Roman Inventions

Ancient Romans were very genius! Let’s discover five reliable Roman inventions facts for kids.

Roman Inventions Facts for Kids Fact Number 1: The First Newspaper Was Developed by The Romans

Although the Romans didn’t create the type of newspapers that we know and use today, they did have something very similar. Roman newspapers had the same purposes as the modern newspaper, it gave Roman citizens information about current affairs.

Stories were inscribed onto stone or metal slabs and they were then placed in public spaces. This publication was called Acta Diurna or ‘daily acts’. Some information that would be included in these were military victories, births and deaths and human interest stories. Accounts of what happened in the Senate were also published to the public at the request of Julius Caesar.

Roman Inventions Facts for Kids Fact Number 2: The Romans Were The First to Use Arches in Architecture

Although the Romans didn’t invent the arch, they were the first to develop the architectural arch. This development allowed them to build bridges, large buildings, and better aqueducts. The Colosseum is a great example of one of the many architectural buildings that the Romans built that shows their excellent arches. 

Roman Inventions Facts for Kids Fact Number 3: The Romans Invented Concrete

The main reason the Romans could build such impressive buildings is because of their invention of concrete. Concrete was made by using a mixture of volcanic ash, lime, and seawater. This mixture was so strong that many Roman buildings still stand in great condition today. Without concrete the Romans wouldn’t have been able to build the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and many other great buildings.

Roman Inventions Facts for Kids Fact Number 4: The Romans Created The First Book

We have the Romans to thank for us not having to read off stone slabs anymore. During the Roman Empire, most writings were done on slabs of stone or written on scrolls. Scrolls were very long pieces of papyrus (paper)  which were on a roll. These scrolls had to be unrolled to be read which was quite time consuming. Julius Caesar commissioned the very first bound book, which he called a codex. This collection of papyrus provided a more secure way to store information. The codex had a built-in cover for protection and also had a table of content.

Roman Inventions Facts for Kids Fact Number 5: The Romans Invented Delivery Services

Emperor Augustus established the cursus publicus, which was a system by which messages and notices could be transferred between provinces. These messages were delivered by horse and cart. Similar to our postal service today, this allowed messages to be sent directly to one person rather than word of mouth. The Romans’ incredible roads made this possible and very successful.

We hope you enjoyed learning more things about the ancient Roman inventions as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this historical culture is, you can move on to learn about ancient people: Roman Clothes, Ancient Roman Food, Ancient Roman Religion and Ancient Roman Schools.

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