An ancient Roman urban legend (a story Romans told about themselves) says that a Roman inventor once created a method of producing unbreakable glass. He showe

An ancient Roman urban legend (a story Romans told about themselves) says that a Roman inventor once created a method of producing unbreakable glass. He showed this to the emperor by dropping a glass chalice on the ground, where it bent instead of breaking, then he hammered it back into shape. According to this legend, the Roman emperor asked if anybody else knew how to make it. The inventor said no, he was the only one. So the emperor had him killed on the spot, to prevent the disruption of the Roman glass industry. I think it never actually happened, but this sort of story reveals a Roman perspective on technological innovation in Roman society.