Our Republican form of government is a nearly direct copy of the Roman Republic, especially our Senate and Executive.
Water pipes, aquaducts , sewage systems all trace directly to Roman tech.
Same for the way we build roads and bypasses. You can go to the UK and still drive over Roman roads.
Check this out...
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1f2gnmt/cross_section_of_a_road_in_england/
The Romans were a few years from industrial age achievements they had a primitive steam turbine the aeolipile that has all the principles of a turbine. Hero’s water pump and wind organ both have the types of cylinders you need for steam engines. They were but a single thought away from an industrial kick off. Imagine the world today if the industrial revolution started in 50 BCE not the 1800s we would be at least everywhere in the solar system and probably out in interstellar space with fusion or antimatter starships real starships the kind you spend a lifetime on never coming back to earth.
https://foresightguide.com/50CE-a-steam-engine-in-ancient-rome/
The Romans fundamentally changed our species trajectory it was the blood feud between Venice and Genoa that prompted Columbus who was from Genoa to look for a way to get to India via sailing west since Venice controlled the Eastern route.
Lead poisoning stopped them.
Slavery, wealth concentration, and the destruction of the rural free holding middle class weakened them.
The unending flow of free slave labor and consequently no free mass market removed any impetus for financial or mechanical/industrial innovation.
The Roman oligarchy destroyed Rome the minute Roman virtue became a punch line. At that point their indolence and deviancy condemned them to the first vigorous race who came along.