ABSTRACT
There is a general belief that technological and scientific developments in the last 200 years have solved many of humanity’s problems – the elimination of diseases and the increase in average life time, and have extended comfort and prosperity to one-third of mankind (about two billion people), an unprecedented fact in history. Ancient Rome, in its splendour, gave its citizens an excellent standard of living, but at the cost of the labour of approximately 100 million enslaved human beings. Only 1 per cent of the world population, at the time, benefited from the prosperity of the Imperial City.
