first time I've agreed with you completely on anything.

there was a TV program recently which compared Roman and Greek machines of war and weapons, they actually built them and showed their use ... I was struck by the fact that apparently when the Romans were faced by some new ingenious Greek war contraption beyond their understanding, they were completely freaked out and scared as hell - this simple fact shows the real pyschological basis of their miserable and vicious regime IMO. Stick a human brain on a rabid monkey and you get a good picture of the Romans and their 'contribution'.