technology
technologyModern definitions of technology merely stress the systematic application of knowledge, and underline the difficulty of addressing ancient technology with concepts relevant to antiquity. Lynn White Jr. observed that ‘no Greek or Roman ever told us, either in words or in iconography, what he or his society wanted from technology, or why they wanted it’, and Moses Finley criticized ‘an artificial insistence on isolating technology as an autonomous subject’. The problem of definition is exacerbated by relative judgements made about the success, or failure, of ancient technology. Whatever the practical significance of ancient philosophical concepts of progress may have been, there has been general agreement amongst historians of technology that the modest number of items that can be claimed as Greek or Roman inventions were not exploited, and that this failure was attributable to social factors. A potent assertion maintained by many commentators...
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