Quote Originally Posted by hoom
I'd like to think something like this:
Without Romes high availability of slaves, the Hellenes would have kept on with their technological improvements & brought about the industrial revolution 1000+ years earlier.
Unlikely IMO. Without monotheism getting a boost through the Roman empire, the mindset needed for the development of science wouldn't have been widespread enough to make a difference. So while Greek technology became highly sophisticated- and it did, look at Hiero's steam engine- science as a way of developing ideas and furthering technology would never have happened. To the Greeks whose opinion has survived, technology was at best an interesting toy. To the enlightenment scientist, scientific principles held the key to changing the world. Better yet, there were people with money willing to back these ideas, which I don't think the Greek philosophical (or worse, polytheist religious) classes would have done.

Philosophy would have probably developed in a completely different way though.