How has American culture been influenced by ancient Roman culture?

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The main legacies of

the Romans are religion, the alphabet, language, the calendar, law,

architecture and literature.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Christianity developed

from a religion among a small group of Jews (who lived in Judea,

which was part of the Roman Empire) into a mass religion in the

Roman days. It spread around the Roman Empire. It became state

religion. Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity developed

during the Later Roman Empire. They were originally called Latin or

Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity

respectively. The former was the main form of Christianity in the

western part of the Roman Empire and the latter was the main form

of Christianity in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Western European

languages have adopted and adapted the Latin alphabet. The only

letters in the English language which do not come from the Latin

alphabet are J, U and W.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Many international

Words in medicine, law and theology are Latin.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The calendar we use is

the Gregorian calendar. It is named after the minor modifications

made by the calendar instituted by Julius Caesar (Julian calendar)

by Pope Gregory XII in 1582. Therefore, we basically use the Roman

calendar. We also use translations of the Roman names for the

months.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Roman law became

influential through the Corpus Juris Civilis, a collection of books

which reviewed imperial laws going back 400 years (to the time of

Hadrian) and was commissioned by the emperor Justinian I. It

scrapped obsolete or unnecessary laws, made changes when necessary

and clarified obscure passages. Its aim was to put the laws into

books (previously they were written on many different scrolls),

harmonise conflicting views among jurists which arose from

centuries of poorly organised development of Roman law and have a

uniform and coherent body of law. It was rediscovered in a library

in Pisa in 1070. It became the foundation of the training of the

nascent profession of lawyers in Europe in the Middle Ages and

Renaissance. It has been used to compile the civil law of many

modern nations.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The Romans influenced

European and American architecture, sculpture and painting until

the early 20th century. They influenced the art of the Renaissance

(14th-15th century) Baroque (17th-18th century) and Neoclassicism

(18th-20th century, and is still sometimes used today). Palladian

architecture was also based on Roman architecture. It was popular

from the 17th century to the 20th century and was often used for

public buildings. Latin literature was very influential in European

literature until the mid-20th century.