Exactly, in fact the Greeks even before the Romans were aware of the 'mathematics' of the principle.

Amazing how hard 'wisdom' is to get into some organization mind-sets though.

But it was a funny story we tourists enjoyed and I could very well see it happening that way in whatever country thought about it. But the way he told the story, no-one was thinking 'mathematically' nor of ancient Greece. Though, nevermind, i was going to talk how the Greeks supposedly stumbled across it while trying the different 'deflection' theory for shield walls.

Still, love these neat stories of how stuff came about.