Trying to turn the present Romans and steam thread on its head I
conjure up a what if based on the application of Hellenistic science
and engineering to the idea of powering ****ps by a steam engine of
sorts in order to compensate for the lack of trained crews in
Hellenistic warfare.
There were more than one expert in the use of water and compressed air
as motion makers in the Library at Alexandria. Say the local ruler
finds he has a war coming on but too few rowers for his galleys. He
turns to the Library as a source of ideas and Ctesibius, and his
students Heron and Philo put them to the problem. (Little movement of
Heron from AD to BC, but this is what-if). They examine the Ctesibian
pump and adapt it from outside mechanical impetus to a steam driven
engine very similar to theones used on Mississippi river steam boats
in the 19th century.
http://alexandrias.tripod.com/ctesibius.htm
The invention fails when the Roman ****ps sail around the slow moving
fleet of paddle wheel vessels but one of the Greeks in the Roman
service obtains one of the craft as reward for some service. He
improves on the operation of the steam engine and uses it to tow grain
****ps into the Ostia harbor.
The idea catches on and the ability to sail cargo in the usual season
not set aside for sailing leads to improved trade and greater Roman
influence. By 200 AD the Va****ian is seen throughout the Roman world
and by 450 AD has created ties within the Empire that keep it from
falling apart. Eventually sailors return from the island off Africa
and Europe with tales of strange men driven ashore on rafts, the men
are dead but they have exotic clothing and appearance.
In the next 1500 years a Roman world evolves with steam ****ps
connecting the colonies and trading posts of the new world (Terra
Nova) and the trade in goods unique to the new continent widens into
the Indian Ocean and down the coast of Africa.
