In "The Ancient World," Brian Wilkie and James Hurst talk about the Roman, Hebrew, and Greek cultures. Each has their own impact on modern society, but I believe the Romans were the most influential on the way today's society is run. To this day, the Roman culture still has many important impacts like, "creation of law, development of democratic government practices, influences in language, literature, art, infrastructure, and city-planning are all areas where the influences of Roman ideas can be seen" (cite). One aspect that really sticks out is the Romans creation of law. In the second millennium B.C. the Romans started the concept of innocent until proven guilty, and to this day we still believe in this system. The Roman law making process also had a huge impact on today's political system. The ways that laws have to pass through two legislative bodies still exists. "Roman law developed the division between public law, in which the state is directly involved, such as with issues of treason and taxation, and private law, concerned with disputes between people, such as over contracts" (cite). Because of the Law of the Twelve Tables, we now have, what is known today as Civil Law. .
Latin is the basis for the English language in which the Romans were accountable for, today most of modern society speaks English. "Educators in our society teach Latin as a way of helping students better understand the English language" (cite), because their roots have similar words.Back in 2000 B.C. Roman men were known to have a family that was "a miniature of the state, headed by a stern father whose power was almost absolute" (cite). To this day we think of the father/male as being the head of the household. For example, when you get married, everything now addressed to the wife is addressed through the husbands name only with a Mrs. in the front. Women had been responsible for cooking and taking care of their family and even raising their children.