Greek and Roman Technology

The Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great was overthrown and succeeded by the empire of Greece's Alexander the Great. Greece had first become a power through its skill in shipbuilding and trading and by its colonization of the shores of the Mediterranean. The Greeks defeated the Persians, in part, because of their naval power.

The Persians and Greeks also introduced a new caste into the division of labor: slavery. By the time of Greece's Golden Age, its civilization depended on slaves for nearly all manual labor. Most scholars agree that in societies that practice slavery, problems in productivity tend to be solved by increasing the number of workers rather than by looking for new production methods or new energy sources. Because of this, theoretical knowledge and learning in Greece—and later in Rome—was largely separated from physical labor and manufacturing.

This is not to say that the Greeks did not develop many new technological ideas. People such as Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria, Ctesibius, and Ptolemy wrote about the principles of siphons, pulleys, levers, cams, fire engines, cogs, valves, and turbines. Some practical contributions of the Greeks were of great importance, such as the water clock of Ctesibius, the diptra (a surveying instrument) of Hero of Alexandria, and the screw pump of Archimedes. Similarly, Greek shipping was improved by Thales of Miletus, who introduced methods of navigation by triangulation, and by Anaximander, who produced the first world map. Nevertheless, the technological advances of the Greeks were not on a par with their contributions to theoretical knowledge and their wide-ranging speculations.

The Roman Empire that engulfed and succeeded that of the Greeks was somewhat similar in this respect. The Romans, however, were great technologists in the sense of organizing and building; they established an urban civilization that enjoyed the first long peaceful period in human history. The great change in engineering that occurred in the Roman period came as a shift from building tombs, temples, and fortifications to the construction of enormous systems of public works. Using water-resistant cement and the principle of the arch, Roman engineers built 70,800 km (44,000 mi) of roads across their vast empire. They also built numerous sports arenas and public baths and hundreds of aqueducts, sewers, and bridges. The engineer of public works for Rome in the 1st century ad, Sextus Julius Frontinus, fought corruption and illegal practices and took great pride in the public works that provided better sanitary conditions for the citizens of Rome.

Roman engineers were also responsible for introducing the water mill and for the subsequent design of undershot and overshot water wheels, which were used to grind grain, saw wood, and cut marble. In the military sphere, the Romans advanced technology by improving weapons such as the javelin and the catapult.