Helen Dale wrote an interesting series of alternate history novels set in an industrialized Roman Empire 2000 years ago. Archimedes survived the Second Punic War to revolutionize Roman science. Then Stoic philosophers led a movement that abolished slavery, thus giving an incentive to use machinery. Seems plausible, but who knows?

https://quillette.com/2018/03/27/romans-ever-done-us-discuss...