Yes, but ... A slave-owning society develops a peculiar attitude about manual labor. Gentlemen's persuits usually involved hunting, gambling, wenching, and -- for those who might be intellectually inclined -- philosophy and politics. Actual work was for them -- "them" being the slave class. Alexis de Tocqueville discusses this in connection with the generally lethargic economy of the South, compared to the busteling activity he witnessed in the North.
Many believe this was responsible for the lack of experimentation in ancient societies. It didn't, however, prevent them from achieving some considerable engineering work, but this was usually related to military activities.
I'll have to respectfully disagree with this. Some things, such as Hero's steam engine, were probably dead on arrival because animal and human labor were far cheaper and there was no impetus to develop it any further. However, classical engineering extended far beyond simply military applications. Hero also invented an automated stage play (no actors, just automatons) complete with sound effects; one of the first coin-operated vending machines; mechanical birds which sang; and a machine that delivered fortunes to the faithful. In addition, we have a primitive mechanical computer for determining celestial positions.
Moving forward and outward from engineering, it was a Roman, Galen, who began moving the world toward modern medicine, including cleaning instruments to reduce the risk of infection. Unfortunately any further movements in this direction were squashed by the Christian church, which considered the body sacrosanct and forbade physicians from dissecting the deceased.
Other major inovations from slave-holding societies include the invention of the metal plow blade, the determination that the Earth was round, and just how big it actually was, the development of the scientific method, and just about all the modern scientific disciplines from archaeology and geology to physics and chemistry.