>>91326686Uh... No. Bait thread is bait, but...
>Christians destabilized Rome!Believe it or not, the myriad of religious beliefs in the Empire sowed dissension as the provinces began to chafe under Roman rule. Interestingly enough, three things caused this. The taxes getting raised (the provinces barely had to pay any before the decline), the decay and corruption of the Roman system of government, and finally the destruction of the Roman identity. There were other contributing factor: Slavery displacing free men, disease, pretenders to throne... but Christianity had very little to do with it.
>the Library of Alexandria was a STEM utopiaNo it wasn't. It's heyday in Alexander's empire had long since passed and now it was a decayed institution that... to be honest? Had long been surpassed by the Maji in Zoroastrian Persia or even Constantinople. Hell, most of the books had been sold off to these aforementioned groups long ago by the time it burned to the ground. Oh? And they didn't event the steam engine. That was done elsewhere in the Empire.
Why anyone moans the loss of what was essentially a social club for Patricians is beyond me. And, and it was those oh so poor Moslem 'children' that burned it.
>Christians repressed the steam enginesAgain, no. Remember me mentioning slavery? The Romans relied on it too much to truly consider adopting a VERY primitive form of steam power... Oh, and scientific advancement doesent work like a game of fucking Civ 5.
>Steam boats would've saved le empireIn which TV proves it makes people dumber. The legions were busted, the economy was a wreck, and Germans were already inside the gates by the time your magic steam engines are supposed to arrive. Magic steam boats wouldn't have stopped a damn thing.