118 replies to this topic

[Mike 215]

How advanced were the Romans and the ancients? Maybe they had cars. In 100 AD there was a coin minted to celebrate the making of the first highway in Rome. This coin shows the Roman emperor Trajan driving a car with his hand on a steering wheel and he is wearing a seat belt. Here is a quote from a coin magazine about this coin:
  "Via traiana, an extension of the Appian Way in southern Italy. The depiction of the personification of the highway is reminiscient of the art nouvean posters of the 20s and 30s advertising motor cars."
  Here are some web sites: http://tjbuggey.anci...fo/viatraj.html
  http:tjbuggey.ancients.info/images//viatraj.jpg
  
So what are the implications? IF the Romans had a working steam or gasoline engine, they we know how the pyramids were built.

[Ryu]

The thing that the figure is in, on the coin, looks nothing like a car but rather some manner of vines.
The "steering wheel" looks to be a spinning wheel for making thread and such.

Quote

IF the Romans had a working steam or gasoline engine......

Therein lies the problem, they didn't. If we have artifacts of hand tools then we'd artifacts of machinery as well.
If the Romans were that advanced then there would be plenty of  automobile artifacts including schematics detailing their production.

[maca02]

Superb eyesight Mike, i saw no car or seatbelt   

[Mike 215]

No seatbelt? Then what is going across his lap? The belt seems to be loose because he seems to be parking the machine. NOtice his head is turned to the back as he backs up into the royal parking spot.
So those of you who cannot believe the Romans built such a machine, here is another anwser: it was brought back by a time traveler. The seat belt (notice like modern belt comes in from a panel on his left side) and the steering wheel are products of our time;
  If you are not happy sit explanation one and two, how about three: the aliens give the car to the emperor for encouraging his people to worship them as gods.

[Professor Buzzkill]

What would they power the car with?

The greeks had a "steam engine" but it was more of a party piece rather then a functioning motor as we know it today.

[Abramelin]

The Romans had carts, not cars:



And this is your goddess holding a wheel:



.

Edited by Abramelin, 18 November 2011 - 12:58 AM.

[Oniomancer]

There are numerous versions of this coin from different mintings. It's pretty obvious it's just a reclining woman with a robe draped over her legs. The cart wheel is in keeping with it's commemoration of the completion of the Via Traiana.

More examples, most with much clearer details, including several sesterces with similar poses:

http://www.acsearch....=similar:273527

Edit to add, Take a look at this relief from the Arch of Trajan also commemorating the Via Traiana:

http://www.filcoo.co...vento_guide.htm

All it's missing is the wheel.

(edit: fixed the first link hopefully)

Edited by Oniomancer, 18 November 2011 - 01:55 AM.

[lightly]

Abramelin, on 18 November 2011 - 12:56 AM, said:

.

      hmm...   she's looking behind, as if she's just heard the siren and saw the lights come on?

Edited by lightly, 18 November 2011 - 01:17 AM.

[Lilly]

Abramelin, on 18 November 2011 - 12:56 AM, said:

The Romans had carts, not cars..

Exactly, ancient Romans did not have automobiles.

[Englishgent]

Romans had cars?....hmmm, the best we could do was a wheelchair !

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[Superglobe]

No, no they did not.

And honestly, it's strange that you chose to interpret that coin as a car. It honestly looks more like a jet-ski, which would be both somehow even more absurd, and a thousand times more hilarious.

[Englishgent]

I think that had the Romans been given a car by the gods or were able to make one I am sure they would have been so proud of the fact that they would have got an artist who could at least draw one for their coins. I  think that anyone who actually believes they did have such a form of transport is the same sort of person who would believe me when I say that the word 'Gullible' has accidentally been left out of the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary .

Edited by Englishgent, 18 November 2011 - 02:57 AM.

[Blackwhite]

The first working steam-powered vehicle that we know about was likely to have been designed by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 25 and a half inch long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.

But, for all we know, maybe a steam-powered vehicle was built centuries earlier.

[The Gremlin]

Mike 215, on 18 November 2011 - 12:16 AM, said:

How advanced were the Romans and the ancients? Maybe they had cars. In 100 AD there was a coin minted to celebrate the making of the first highway in Rome. This coin shows the Roman emperor Trajan driving a car with his hand on a steering wheel and he is wearing a seat belt. Here is a quote from a coin magazine about this coin:
  "Via traiana, an extension of the Appian Way in southern Italy. The depiction of the personification of the highway is reminiscient of the art nouvean posters of the 20s and 30s advertising motor cars."
  Here are some web sites: http://tjbuggey.anci...fo/viatraj.html
  http:tjbuggey.ancients.info/images//viatraj.jpg
  
So what are the implications? IF the Romans had a working steam or gasoline engine, they we know how the pyramids were built.

  
most amusing.

seriously though, I dont think that steam locomotion was too far away from them...they had other machines that used steam so it was probably only a matter of time and genius.....
.....something which they ran out of all too soon.

Edited by lil gremlin, 18 November 2011 - 01:42 PM.

[Orcseeker]

Mike 215, on 18 November 2011 - 12:16 AM, said:

So what are the implications? IF the Romans had a working steam or gasoline engine, they we know how the pyramids were built.

You are suggesting that Romans are hundreds of years ahead of their time, with the steam and even more so with the gasoline. If they had developed a steam engine I assume it would have been used quite widely in areas other than transport and to suggest gasoline would mean they were pumping and refining oil. Are you further suggesting they knew how the pyramids were built?