*I always wanted to write something along this line.
http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/0to9/hero.htm
"80 B.C.: it was a dark and stormy night. The lookout, lashed to the mast, strained to see through the sheets of rain. A sudden flash of lightning revealed the tooth-like shapes of rocks, dead ahead! The lookout screamed a warning, and the helmsman, in near-panic, swung the ship hard a-port. With a sigh of relief, the lookout watched the coast of the island of Antikythera slide by to starboard...
"So the Antikythera mechanism, the most complex mechanical device known from the ancient world and the first known example of differential gearing before the 16th century A.D., is saved from nearly 2000 years of watery obscurity.
"C. Rotundus Maximus, the wealthy Roman merchant whose hobby is astronomy, gets his toy solar system. His numerous houseguests are fascinated by it, and often ask to turn the handle to see the phases of the moon. Maximus knows a good thing when he sees it, and orders several copies of the machine from the now-unknown Ionian mechanical genius from whom he commissioned the original.
"By 70 B.C. the device is present in many of the great Roman villas..."
