Posted on 07/05/2010 8:38:13 AM PDT by ventanax5
Both Greece and Rome made significant contributions to Western Civilization. Greek knowledge was ascendant in philosophy, physics, chemistry, medicine, and mathematics for nearly two thousand years. The Romans did not have the Greek temperament for philosophy and science, but they had a genius for law and civil administration. The Romans were also great engineers and builders. They invented concrete, perfected the arch, and constructed roads and bridges that remain in use today. But neither the Greeks nor the Romans had much appreciation for technology. As documented in my book, Science and Technology in World History, Vol. 2, the technological society that transformed the world was conceived by Europeans during the Middle Ages.
Greeks and Romans were notorious in their disdain for technology. Aristotle noted that to be engaged in the mechanical arts was "illiberal and irksome." Seneca infamously characterized invention as something fit only for "the meanest slaves." The Roman Emperor Vespasian rejected technological innovation for fear it would lead to unemployment.
Greek and Roman economies were built on slavery. Strabo described the slave market at Delos as capable of handling the sale of 10,000 slaves a day. With an abundant supply of manual labor, the Romans had little incentive to develop artificial or mechanical power sources. Technical occupations such as blacksmithing came to be associated with the lower classes.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
bump
There isan interesting book I have just finished called "Justinians Flea". It postulates that the great bubonic plagues which killed over 25 million people in Byzantium alone, so loosened Constantinoples grip on its territory that European states developed from the Franks, The Allemani, The Rus etc.
/src on/According to Zero’s NASA is was the Muzzies who created the modern world./src off/
Greeks and Romans were notorious in their disdain for technology.
http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/crap.wav
Just think how hard it would be to do calculus using Roman numerals.
We forget that at our peril. We toss it away when rather than just confer respect on those who hold different ideas from their heritage, we act as though those ideas are equally promoting of human well being as were Christian Europe.
Progressives are really tolerant of destruction of our most precious heritage. We need to re-learn our history and pass it on.
And at the time, the Arabs were NOT Muslim, contrary to popular belief.
While it's undoubtedly an impressive feat of engineering and construction, how did the Pantheon's unsupported dome improve people's lives in any way similar to the way that the agricultural and industrial advancements in Europe did?
Sigh...
“Arabic” numerals were invented by the hindus, including the zero.
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numeral.html
It’s telling when the only known arab achievement is one they have stolen from their hindu victims of the world’s greatest genocide.
Apart from the concrete, arches, roads and bridges, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Amazing they could do that with no real knowledge of chemistry.
a-MEN. Say it loud and often!
Same way with gunpowder. You had to mix sulfur, potassium nitrate and charcoal in just the right amounts. Wherever did THAT idea come from? I suspect some alchemist was mixing stuff and of a sudden BOOM! "Hey, what great fireworks it would make!" says he.
The roads? That goes without saying.
Which their Italian descendants are well-known for into the present day....
>>>what have the Romans ever done for us?
The Romans POPULARIZED A SYSTEMATIC TAXATION system, developed in the East (Pergamum in Western half of Turkey).
Tom Holland in “Rubicon” says that Rome came to find it a “honey pot” as they sold off tax collection franchises throughout the East rather than rely on the established local tax bureaucracies.
This innovation created the first “military-fiscal complex.” It also led to the Romans getting kicked out of Turkey at that time by Mithridates executing all Romans and pouring molten gold down the throat of the Roman commissioner, Manius Aquillius.
It can be argued that the philosophers and politicians (and theologians) set the stage so that the engineers, craftsmen and entrepreneurs could thrive.
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