Simple inventions that could have helped Rome

What are your thoughts on 17th century coffee houses such as those described in the diary of Samuel Pepys? Did they help pep up Anglo entrepreneurs at the cusp of the industrial revolution?

tanks, machineguns and howitzers would have been useful

Some kind of baller ass plow or some shit.

What you're saying and what Diocletian did are polar opposites though. He totally removed what little power the senate had, reducing them to a group of ultra-rich Italian nobles idling on massive estates. He centralised power as much as possible and did everything he could to establish an absolute autocracy. This was all done to try and unify the empire as much as possible in the wake of its partial collapse in the third century. Your idea of smaller senates and a less powerful emperor would probably just make Rome more prone to fracturing and civil war

well, i was using the point that a larger bureaucracy helped to stabilize the empire.

an absolute autocracy could certainly help, only if more power was delegated and deferred to local landowners and appointed officials.

the smaller senates could have powers to address local the local needs of the provinces without requiring intervention from rome (or constantinople). the central senate would organize and coordinate the imperial bureaucracy and landowners, and serve to appoint the emperor and his direct successors.

there would still be an emperor, but he would be a part of the system and beholden to it, and not above it.

NUKES

The heavy plow and horse collar.

It would increase food production in regions with heavy soils thus allowing them to support their legions there. It would be totally feasible for the empire to expand as far as Russia, in time.

Human wealth is based entirely off of human production; creating a new want is creating a new need is creating a new avenue of activity, is creating a new industry.

More things to do gives up more stuff to have. Coffee giving up energy to both do things and the randomization of our thought processes, similiar to drugs and alcohol, to think of new things that we didn't think of before.

Its hard to estimate the value of some of the smallest things in history; the ole "what if there were no apples on Newton's Tree" train of thought process stereotype.

You could make the case for any number of a different butterfly effects. Your milage will vary.

ST voyager episode "Year of hell" illustrated this concept nicely. Infact, they even called the fictional nation "the Imperium".

youtube.com/watch?v=ot9knd8mMRQ

How about this
NOT USING LED AS A SWEETNER
NOY USING LED IN PIPES
NOT USING LED AT ALL
FUCKING ROMAN SUBHUMANS

Justinian managed to get two monks to smuggle silk worms out of China. This was used to set up silk factories which ensured a Byzantine monopoly on silk production for centuries. Silk was one of the most valuable commodities you could find. If this had happened sooner it would have helped a great deal with Rome's economic problems before the third century.

Even during the reign of Tiberius the Romans were well aware of the problem of gold flowing out of the empire to pay for silks from India. Since the Romans had nothing of their own to sell back to the Indians, it resulted in a centuries-long trade deficit which just aggravated the problem of currency debasement and eventual hyperinflation. With silk of their own, this would be mitigated.

Plus, this makes the overland silk road far less important, which reduces the power the Parthians/Sassanids had on their control over this route and the threat its disruption would present to the Romans.

>LED
That might have helped quite a bit actually. Probably would have scared off the Germanic invaders.

> Printing Press

Yeah that surely kept the peace and in no way made things spiral out of control

For the G*rms

>LED

The effects of lead in those quantities are negligible in the lifespam of the average human.

Most interesting answer so far.

Do you know how many moving parts and separate pieces that all need to fit together perfectly a printing press has?

>printing press

Yeah that sure would have helped for spreading degeneracy faster.

Printing press is a surefire way to ruin any large polity you idiot

>degeneracy Gibbon meme

The absolute state of Veeky Forums

faster communication of any kind. even simple shit like telegraphs would take the travel of news and information weeks/months down to literally minutes or hours.

foreign bodyguards
if the varangians had the spot from the start Rome would still exist

German bodyguards were a thing since the early empire.

Aside from the types, three. Three ! Three well adjusted parts ! Far beyond the abilities of the Mediterranean people's of this time !

Oh... wait, actually not, you're just a complete idiot.

>The screw press was first invented and used by the Romans in the first century A.D. It was used primarily in wine and olive oil production. The screwpress was also used in Gutenberg's printing press in the mid-15th century.[1]

What quantities?

Use of mirrors in war, just imagine if a whole Roman legion had mirrors and they reflected the sun into the enemies eyes. It would be easy victory in a lot of cases, and the damn northern barbarians would have been defeated with the mirrors too.