why didn't the Roman Empire progress to an industrial revolution? I have always heard an answer that I thought was widely accepted (maybe not): the combination

why didn't the Roman Empire progress to an industrial revolution? I have always heard an answer that I thought was widely accepted (maybe not): the combination of slavery and Christianism. Masters would not be interested in improving efficiency because the work was done by slaves. Look for a short story by William Golding: "Envoy Extraordinary" for a literary version of that point. Then Christianism didn't improve the situation. It got rid of slavery, but not of slaves. The mindset was not the same but no better either.