Comment by unity1001

Rome was a slave economy. When you are using millions of slaves for no-cost labor, there is little need for develop technology to improve industrial output. Being a slave society has been Rome's undoing. It started in Middle Republic period. It not only prevented industrial progress, but also killed the economy for everyone other than the richest few because those richest few were able to flood the economy with near-zero-cost produce and products, bankrupting anyone else. This caused slow concentration of entire economy, then farmland, then actual land, in the hands of the few elite and started the transition to the feudal economy.