What can you tell me about Romans in regards to typography?

Question:

What can you tell me about Romans in regards to typography?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

They invented the serif. Letters carved on stone tend to lose their incised corner angles when the sun slants on them, as eg in the Forum Romanum. So a small projection of the incision, correcting the optical illusion of a rounded corner but maintaining the side-to-side alignment, became what we now call a serif (or seriff, if you must). Rockwell and others spoiled all that delicate history!