Greek Innovation Essay

An integral component of human nature is curiosity. There always has been and always will be individuals that simply will not accept the state of affairs that the world is in. Progress, innovation, development, whatever one would call it, is constantly being pursued at many varying levels to very different ends. Throughout history, various empires and civilizations pursued this concept of development in their own unique ways, adapting and creating technologies to suit the populace’s needs as well as to glorify themselves. Based on evidence from ancient Egypt to the Renaissance, it will be demonstrated that the three main factors that contribute to innovation within an empire are a centralized government, an investment in knowledge, and an

The Ptolemaic government began to realize the value of natural philosophy and started patronizing individuals to continue producing ideas to further expand Greek knowledge as a whole. Ptolemy I began this tradition, and his successor, Ptolemy II, went as far as to build the Museum at Alexandria, used as the first major library in the Ancient World. Knowledge became a sort of currency, and anyone was able to come to the Museum to gain understanding of anything one wished to. Unfortunately, the library was burned down after 700 years, resulting in a vast loss of knowledge, some lost to history forever. However, while the library lasted, many ideas were shared and innovations were spurred, such as Hero’s (fl. 60 BCE) steam-powered engine. While this would have been a marvelous breakthrough for this time, it wasn’t needed as human labor was still beyond plentiful (HST 318 Lecture: Greek Science and Engineering – Hellenistic

The Roman empire was centered on continuous expansion. It created an extremely strong sense of accomplishment and national pride through military prowess with the best army in the world. Roads were created between major cities, and in every city that Rome conquered, Roman law was implemented (HST 318 Lecture: The Roman Empire – Part I). This created a standard mindset for everyone to follow, which helped unify the people as a whole and created common needs for innovation to remedy. However, the Romans themselves would not accept change; instead, they forced change upon others. This severely limited innovation because the spread of ideas foreign to the Roman way were not taken sincerely. Nonetheless, the Romans did very well in terms of innovation, and being a Roman citizen reaped these benefits. Richer citizens could even acquire running water, a feat made possible by the transportation of water from mountainous regions by aqueducts, a marvel of engineering spurred by the desire for luxury (HST 318 Lecture: The Roman Empire – Part I). Luxury was a new concept in Rome, where people would simply buy items, not out of necessity, but out of the desire to gain a higher social standing. People started to really care about what others thought about them and their lifestyle, and this spurred on the economy and the incentive to create products to match needs. Markets sprung up, and the Roman economy