05-25-2006, 07:12 PM
Quote:The supposed Roman lack of technical innovation and the tendency not to utilise technologies has also been overstated, but it is broadly true that a large source of manual labour in slaves did have something of a retardant effect on the widespread use of mechanical power, for example.
Lol, I really wonder if the whole thing was the result of slavery reaching critical mass. As the percentage of slave to citizen reached 99.999, some patrician went on a vacation and had a heart attack. Some weeks later back at the villa, one of his slaves in Western Gaul asked, "So, who's in charge here anyway?" After a while of looking at each other dumbly, europe collectively said "AAAAAAAAAA!"
Rich Marinaccio