Four Great Inventions of the Greco-Romans

Well, how could we reach a state where it is like China, collapsing and reforming? How would the people of the Mediterranean accept this mantle of 'Roman' and try and restore the Roman Empire.
Romanity enjoyed a high status of sorts IOTL even. You don`t have to change THAT much...
Higher levels of technological development mean either higher population density, or higher standards of living. In the case of the former, you have more military power, in the case of the latter, more civic support. Both are good bases for generals going for reunification (it´s not as if we didn`t have such unifier figures IOTL, too, only they never succeeded too much, and their statecraft was really crappy compared to what a resilient bureaucracy could bring you).
 
To anyone saying nothing would be lost if the Romans had printing, the Catholics and the Muslims burnt hills worth of books and scrolls to the appeasement of their God. The hills would simply become mountains.

That said, Greco-Romans invented Physics, goddamn Physics, why do we need to give them paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder?
 
To anyone saying nothing would be lost if the Romans had printing, the Catholics and the Muslims burnt hills worth of books and scrolls to the appeasement of their God. The hills would simply become mountains.

That said, Greco-Romans invented Physics, goddamn Physics, why do we need to give them paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder?

Nonsense.
 
To anyone saying nothing would be lost if the Romans had printing, the Catholics and the Muslims burnt hills worth of books and scrolls to the appeasement of their God. The hills would simply become mountains.

That said, Greco-Romans invented Physics, goddamn Physics, why do we need to give them paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder?

Because Reasons. (And Reason for that matter).

Although, it does make you curious, could the Romans with Physics and the Printing press become Atheists :p Secularisation of the Roman Empire ftw. #GiveRomansEverything
 
To anyone saying nothing would be lost if the Romans had printing, the Catholics and the Muslims burnt hills worth of books and scrolls to the appeasement of their God. The hills would simply become mountains.

That said, Greco-Romans invented Physics, goddamn Physics, why do we need to give them paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder?
Because with the use of a printing press, it is far less likely that they could ever manage to actually find all the potentially thousands of copies of the books. By contrast in the real world it was not guaranteed that there would ever be more than one copy of a book given the sheer time and monetary commitment it was to make a copy in the first place.

Also, throughout most of their history until relatively recently Muslims have been preserving books and knowledge, not destroying it.
 
To anyone saying nothing would be lost if the Romans had printing, the Catholics and the Muslims burnt hills worth of books and scrolls to the appeasement of their God. The hills would simply become mountains.

That said, Greco-Romans invented Physics, goddamn Physics, why do we need to give them paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder?

When the Nazis burned books, how many did they manage to capture every single copy of?
 
Mein Kampf. Every copy was at one point in the hands of the Nazis.

Funny that it was the only book they wouldn't burn.

Anyway, when would you guys say is the most likely time for the development of paper and the printing press in Roman history? I see a lot of discussion about the effects, but said effects would vary hugely depending on the time period.
 
Funny that it was the only book they wouldn't burn.

Anyway, when would you guys say is the most likely time for the development of paper and the printing press in Roman history? I see a lot of discussion about the effects, but said effects would vary hugely depending on the time period.

The black death played an important part in the impetus for the printing press in OTL, so a similar die off would be a likely catalyst. Maybe the Antonine Plague, if paper has been around for a century or so by then.
 
Book burnings throughout history rely on taking publicly owned copies (libraries etc), folks voluntarily giving up their copies of banned books, and seizing of banned books searching residences etc. Even with 100% cooperation from the population (voluntary or severely coerced) finding every copy of a book and destroying it is difficult.
 
The black death played an important part in the impetus for the printing press in OTL, so a similar die off would be a likely catalyst. Maybe the Antonine Plague, if paper has been around for a century or so by then.

Then the empire, at least its first incarnation, is doomed (not that it wouldn't be anyway). The Antonine Plague basically crippled Rome and IIRC seriously damaged its metalworking capabilities and military prowess (most likely as a result of the metalworking thing). From what I remember, tons of knowledgeable smiths had died, causing a drastic reduction in the quality of Roman metallurgy. Therefore, I predict that they're most likely going down in a way fairly similar to OTL; but post-Roman times are going to be much different, as there won't be as much of a loss of knowledge, and the Empire might very well hobble on a bit longer before falling apart.

I suddenly feel like I might be confusing it with something else though.
 
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