Poll 2: Which "invention" would have benefited the Roman Empire (until 395 AD) most?

Poll 2: Which "invention" would have benefited the Roman Empire (until 395 AD) most?

  • The Stirrup

    Votes: 16 14.7%
  • The Horseshoe

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Horsecollar

    Votes: 17 15.6%
  • Zero and the Position System

    Votes: 10 9.2%
  • Germ Theory

    Votes: 17 15.6%
  • Theory of Chemistry

    Votes: 9 8.3%
  • Theory of Economics

    Votes: 34 31.2%
  • Other

    Votes: 6 5.5%

  • Total voters
    109
Really? I can't think of allot of scenarios where Egypt doesn't eventually fall to Arab invasions at some point.
I like the idea of Coptic Byzantium instead of our familiar Greek one though

Why? The Arabs were extremely likely OTL to catch both the Byzantines and Sassanids militarily exhausted at the worst possible time, and even then they very nearly failed to conquer Egypt and the Levant.
 
Why? The Arabs were extremely likely OTL to catch both the Byzantines and Sassanids militarily exhausted at the worst possible time, and even then they very nearly failed to conquer Egypt and the Levant.


And of course Arab doesn't necessarily have to mean Moslem.

Iirc there have been migrations from Arabia both before and after Mohammad, so even if he is butterflied away, you could still get an Arab invasion - but one where the invaders adopted the Egyptian version of Christianity rather than sticking with a religion of their own.
 
Germ Theory

I was going to say railways because they already mastered the mechanics of steam engines; but I decided on germ theory, provided they had the smarts to upgrade their sanitation. Their cities stank and their bathouse pools were coated in scum!
 
That we want a Timeline where the Roman Economy TAKES OFF.

Exactly! Economic history is not a subject that gets the attention it deserves. If the Roman Economy grew at the modern rate of ~2% per annum we would be living in Star Trek by now.
 
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