Decline of european science:

By the middle of  the second century B.C., the Greek empires were collapsing in  anarchy andunder the weight of  the more vigorous power of Rome. Italy, in  the third century B.C., was afarming country with a good climate and a growing healthy population. By  the first century B.C., the Romans had organised themselves into a powerful military dictatorship, with popular support. The army went on to conquer the countries of eastern and western Mediterranean as well as Britain, western Germany  and Austria. While the army became all powerful, the  land was ruled by slave owners  and wealthy merchants. The cementing force of the empire was the army, as it was used by the emperor to collect enough taxes to keep the soldiers from mutinying and choosing another emperor. The best land wascultivated by the slave gangs  from the villas of the wealthy, while the brer  areas were left to the pagan natives or to newly settled free slaves from the villas. Thus, the mainstay of  the economy was loot from the empire by military coercion, and agriculture by  slaves. In  such a situation, it is, perhaps, not surprising that there was very little demand to increase production and to improve  the economy through the applications ofnew  techniques. There was, thefefore, a very limited contribution to culture in the form of science and arts during the period of  the Roman Empire which continued until the second century A.D.