Originally Posted by Dawnling

The Roman head-space was occupied by the idea that
things would fall apart if these sacrifices were not made.
The christian refusal
was,
to Romans,
the same as saying, "DIE NOW".

The Romans were very tolerant of any religion as long as "Rome"
was caused to continue.

They felt that this request was very normal and understandable.

as in, ' Do as you like but please keep the roof over all our heads. "

Originally Posted by Dr. Zaius

Originally Posted by The_Heretic

The Archimedes Death Ray!

Originally Posted by Gaia

It is said that he prevented one Roman attack on Syracuse by using a large array of mirrors (speculated to have been highly polished shields) to reflect sunlight onto the attacking ships causing them to catch fire. This popular legend, dubbed the "Archimedes's death ray", has been tested many times since the Renaissance and often discredited as it seemed the ships would have had to have been virtually motionless and very close to shore for them to ignite, an unlikely scenario during a battle. A group at the MIT have performed their own tests and concluded that the mirror weapon was a possibility, although later tests of their system showed it to be ineffective in conditions that more closely matched the described siege.

Archimedes Death Ray

Originally Posted by The_Heretic

I hadn't seriously thought they called it a death ray.

Originally Posted by Gaia

I posted that for those who read here, so they would know what a Archimedes Death Ray was.

Originally Posted by Gaia

It is said that he prevented one Roman attack on Syracuse by using a large array of mirrors (speculated to have been highly polished shields) to reflect sunlight onto the attacking ships causing them to catch fire. This popular legend, dubbed the "Archimedes's death ray", has been tested many times since the Renaissance and often discredited as it seemed the ships would have had to have been virtually motionless and very close to shore for them to ignite, an unlikely scenario during a battle. A group at the MIT have performed their own tests and concluded that the mirror weapon was a possibility, although later tests of their system showed it to be ineffective in conditions that more closely matched the described siege.

Archimedes Death Ray

Originally Posted by The_Heretic

You know, it's funny but in one of my science fiction novels were siamese cats who'd been selectively bred by ancient "pre-Egyptian" peoples to be upright users of tools and weapons. But, since transplanted to another world [not by humans] they had developed a priestesshood where among the practices was using large photovoltaic crystals to laze sunlight into an inefficient laser.

Originally Posted by Dr. Zaius

Oddly enough there have been a number of test with this scenario. The last I saw they had proved that finely polished shields in great numbers could have caught an ancienct ship on fire due to all the pitch on the vessals. Who knows for sure.

Originally Posted by Gaia

You have a very interesting way of looking at things!