h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of the most obvious legacies of the Romans are the Planet names.
Mercury the Winged Messenger with a bag of tricks. Venus, goddess of love and beauty. Earth. Well not earth. Mars, god of war. Jupiter, king of gods. Saturn, fertility and agriculture god. Uranus, I believe is the name of the personification of the heavens and skies (Pre-Jupiter), Neptune, god of horses, the sea and earthquakes. Pluto, god of the underworld.

Most months have roots in Roman culture. We would have a completely different calendar is not for the Romans.

Janus god of beginning - January.
Februa festival of purification in Rome - February.
Mars - March.
The word for open apirire - April.
Maiesta, goddess of honor - May.
Juno, queen of gods - June.
Julius Caesar born in this month - July.
Augustus, the first Roman Emporer - August.
Septem (the seventh month in Roman culture, Septem means seven in Latin) - September
Octo (Octo means eight... eighth month) - October
Novem (means nine) - November
Decem (ten) - December.

Yes what a bunch of funsters they were. Is there possibly an animal that thet did not try to eliminate by using them in thei "games". Good job that they couldnt get to the kangaroos, or they would have had them boxing gladiators.The Romans were expers at war and conquests, but were as barbaric as their neighbours.

It's a good thing for the Romans that they were as barbaric as their neighbors, since otherwise their neighbors would have conquered them and we'd be talking about a completely different civilization. It would make a good alternative reality novel, to see how Europe would be different if the Carthaginians had conquered Rome. Our English language might be influenced by Phoenician, and we might be preparing for the big festival of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll in honor of our god, Baal. And that leads to another interesting question: if orgies were godly worship, how would youth rebel? Oh, right! They'd join a new religion that forbade orgies. Maybe very little would be changed, and the world would be very much the way it is now except the names and language would have been changed.

The world could be radically different, because the Romans gave us one thing that has totally altered the face of the planet, and is still a major political economic and social force: Christianity.

Roman persecution of the Jews led to the Messianic cults of which Christianity was the most successful, and then the Romans eventually adopted Christianity and exported it across Europe. After all, the seat of Catholicism is still Rome.

Dibs, I agree. Would Christianity be more aptly-named Christian Romanism? Christianity took on the characteristics of Roman government -- an international organization, ruled and coordinated from Rome, a single faith to which everyone had to receive or face the consequences. The early church was far more chaotic. Not even the Apostle Paul was able to fix what may have been to him an irritating mishmosh of heterodoxy. Without Roman influence on the church, could anyone have brought the independent-minded Christian churches into line(and they did, the Roman way. And when that forceful guidance waned, heterodoxy erupted anew in the Reformation!)
WARNING: GOING OFF TOPIC