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200 BC to 1000 AD - Rome to Baghdad

200 BC to 1000 AD Rome to Baghdad

- The Roman Empire
- The Rise of Christ
- The Decline of Rome
- The Arabs 600 BC to 1000 AD
- Arab Alchemy
- The Decline of the Islamic State

The ideas and traditions of the Greeks spread from Rome to Baghdad from 200 BC to 1000 AD. Along the way, the practical stock of chemical knowledge increased, and theory changed. But eventually the theory arrived in familiar form at the gates of Europe.

Rome 200 BC to 600 AD

The original site of Rome consisted of seven hills: high ground that was ideal for defense against other humans and against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. This mosquito would play a major role in the later development of European chemistry. The hilltop communities were united and ruled by kings until about 500 BC, when the republican system of government replaced the monarchy. Around 400 BC, the Romans prepared to invade Italy, and by the third century, they controlled the peninsula.

The Romans used Carthage to control the Mediterranean. In this war, Hannibal crossed the Alps into Italy in 15 days with elephants, infantry, cavalry, and war equipment. It is said that in this crossing he used vinegar to break down large rocks that were obstructing the crossing (rocks that were too large for the elephants to handle, presumably). This cannot be the vinegar we know today—five percent acetic acid—because this substance would not affect rocks unless one had a great deal of time (a thousand years) and a large quantity of vinegar (oceans). Hannibal may have used some kind of explosive, or he may have used one of the strong salt solutions that were called vinegar in those days. These powerful brines do not freeze at the freezing point of ordinary water (which is why salt is poured on snowy roads to form a brine that only freezes at low temperatures). The brine may have been poured between the rocks during the relatively warm day in the Alps, and when the temperature dropped to its lowest point at night, the brine would eventually freeze and expand, breaking the rock. If this was the mechanism for breaking the rock, the success of these methods depended on luck and time, and it is doubtful that Hannibal used them routinely during the fifteen days of the march. But if they were used successfully once, it would have been enough to enter the history books. (Hannibal has also been said to have catapulted containers of poisonous snakes onto enemy ships, which seems very dramatic and difficult to achieve; if he had the power to break rocks, why not catapult them onto enemy ships?) As it happened, Hannibal managed to conquer Rome for a time until Rome used his same tactics and attacked him in his homeland of Africa. Hannibal was forced to return to Africa defeated, leaving the Mediterranean under Roman control. The Greek cities that sided with Hannibal became Roman colonies. Like the Egyptians, the Romans absorbed Greek culture so much that educated Romans became bilingual in Latin and Greek. It seemed that the Romans could not be stopped, and they began to conquer areas in southern Europe (Macedonia, Greece, Gaul (France), Britain, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Persia).