Hello All Have just started reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall, I'm several pages in and am finding it quite enjoyable so far. ‎"Another damned, thick, square, book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?" William Henry, Duke of Gloucester found at... http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/spqrpage.html Found this quote and thought I'd share it with you all, I'm sure it sums up what many would think on seeing the book! Don't let the size deter you! A THoR Tour of Rome! Count me in!

I'd like to ask, does one great civilization's inventions and advancements naturally develop in isolation, without the influences from other groups? Though doubtlessly, there were in Rome, inventors and men with original ideas, as the Empire expanded the incorporated folk would surely have added to the collective understanding of how the world works, ideas absorbed and improved on by those Romans with the luxury of time to spend on a given problem, not just fighting for basic subsistence. I'm guessing technology flows between communities, like food influences, language and religious practices. The clincher is having individuals in a society with enough wealth (time and money) to devote their attentions to technology.