More than 2,000 years ago, there was a colossal empire in human history, the Roman Empire, the westernmost part of the Eurasian continent. Coincidentally, at the eastern end of the Eurasian continent, there is also a superpower, which is the Han Empire.
The two Han Dynasty and the two Romes constituted the "Old World Civilization Pattern" in the classical era. As the most powerful empire at the east and west ends of the Eurasian continent, both have conquered the Eastern and Western worlds by force, the Roman Empire spanned Europe, Asia and Africa, turning the Mediterranean Sea into its own inland sea, and the Han Empire conquered almost all the nomadic peoples in East Asia, and its power reached Central Asia and North Asia.
However, the conquest by force could never last long, and the Roman Empire soon fell into civil war, and finally collapsed under the invasion of the "barbarians";After a brief period of glory in the Han Empire, China was also mired in a 400-year war of secession.
Like the Han Empire, the influence of the Roman Empire continued to influence Europe, and the Roman Empire continued to conquer the world after its demise, and some parts of the region are still under the continued influence of these three conquests of the Roman Empire to this day.
First conquest: Latin
Latin was originally a dialect of the Italian peninsula, but with the expansion of the Roman Empire, it quickly became the dominant language of the Western world at the time. However, the language did not decline with the fall of the Roman Empire, which designed Latin to be one of the most grammatically rigorous languages in the world, and was used as a widespread and formal language throughout classical and medieval Europe.
At that time, the peoples of the West used Latin as the medium language, and almost all official documents and academic works were written in Latin, until the 17th century, the great works of the French Descartes, the English Newton, and the German Leibniz were all written in Latin, not their own native language.
At that time, Europeans did not understand Latin, just as terrible as modern Chinese do not understand classical Chinese, they will not be able to read most of the original works. Until modern times, when Chinese went to the West to study, Latin was still compulsory, such as Gu Hongming and Chen Yinke, who were masters of Latin. It can be said that understanding Western civilization without understanding Latin can only be an itch in the boot.
Second conquest: Roman law
If you ask which country had the largest and most complete legal system in ancient society, the answer must be Rome. As the source of Western rule of law civilization, Roman law has profoundly influenced the formation of the rule of law in civil law systems and modern European countries.
From the ancient Roman Tables' Law of the Twelve Tables to the Justinian Code of the Eastern Roman Empire, Roman law has undergone thousands of years of development and improvement. The Napoleonic Code of Napoleon, promulgated in 1804, was a great continuation of the great tradition of Roman law.
Napoleon once said of his codex: "There is one thing that I have that will immortalize, and that is my codex." It was also true that Germany, in order to catch up with France, did not hesitate to implement its own German Civil Code at the turn of the century in 1900.
This was followed by the "Codex".The Roman law system, the civil law system, was brought to the world. It was not until 2020 that China promulgated its first Civil Code, which was not only a milestone in the construction of the rule of law in China, but also a manifestation of the profound influence and change of Roman law in the world.
Third conquest: **Teach
* The influence of religion on Western civilization and the conquest of world history are self-evident. Although the religion was brutalized by the Roman Empire at the beginning of its birth, the religious civilization was born and developed with the help of the shell of the Roman Empire.
The relationship between Rome and ** religion is very complicated, the rulers of the Roman Empire killed **, and the believers subverted the Roman Empire, but the two have always been as complicated as vines in the later historical process, and even later ** religion became the state religion of Rome, and the Holy See became the center of ** religion in the world.
According to the division of Western historiography, the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, and it was not until Charlemagne reclaimed his position as emperor under the coronation of the Pope in 800 AD, and the ** religious civilization completely replaced the Roman civilization.
In today's popular context, **teachCivilization is equivalent to Western civilization, with the advent of the colonial era, the first religious civilization spread to the world, becoming the most important ontology and driving force of modern civilization. This "conquest" was far more thorough and lasting than Latin and Roman law.
The above three Roman conquests of the world are mainly based on Professor Zhao Lin's latest masterpiece: the signed edition of the four-volume "The Splendor of the Ancient Roman Empire". The book spans more than 1,000 years, from the birth of ancient Rome in the 8th century BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. However, the changes that Rome brought to human civilization were not only the above three conquests, but also the important political settings of modern Western countries, such as bicameral system, separation of powers and checks and balances, all originated from the Roman republican system.
Roman civilization is connected to Greek civilization and religious civilization, which inherited Greece and gave birth to the Middle Ages, and has long become the most important foundation of modern civilization in the West and the most important source of modern civilization in the world. If you don't understand Rome, you can't accurately understand modern human civilization, so the store manager sincerely recommends Professor Zhao Lin's latest masterpiece: the four-volume "The Splendor of the Ancient Roman Empire". The book is beautifully typeset and illustrated, and all four volumes are bound in threads for easy reading. We are fortunate to have Mr. Zhao LinAutographed, limited quantity, click on the product card below, you can collect it with one click.