Archimedes lives

I have been watching an old 1990s NOVA documentary on Archimedes, and of course I can't resist asking this question:

What if the Romans had successfully captured Archimedes as they originally intended to do? And what if his work 'The Method' had not been written over? What would the impact had been? Feel free to speculate...
 
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I have been watching an old 1990s NOVA documentary on Archimedes, and of course I can't resist asking this question:

What if the Romans had successfully captured Archimedes as they originally intended to do? And what if his work 'The Method' had not been written over? What would the impact had been? Feel free to speculate...

He was about 75 when killed, so thered probably be very little difference in terms of discoveries. As for his advanced engineering, the romans wouldnt want it. They were very competent builders, rule of thumb engineers, but werent interested in the fancy stuff.

As for if his work wasnt written over, then we probably wouldnt have it.
 
Before paper most manuscripts were written on parchment made of animal skin which was expensive so it was often reused by scrapping off the ink. The older writting can be read under special lighting.
 
Before paper most manuscripts were written on parchment made of animal skin which was expensive so it was often reused by scrapping off the ink. The older writting can be read under special lighting.
Exactly. Some of the interesting texts that have been recovered lately survived only because the parchment had been reused. If that particular parchment hadnt been reused, we wouldnt have the text at all.
 
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