"The ancient Romans were practical people"

[Boojatta]

Is there a better explanation for the lack of original theoretical work by ancient Romans?

Why I am not satisfied with the explanation in the title of this thread:

1. Theoretical work is practical if one is interested in the long-term future.

2. If some ancient Romans studied history in detail then they would have known that various practical methods were not always known and in many cases were developed based on theory.

3. The Romans had a simple writing system. So difficulty learning the writing system should not have prevented ancient Romans from studying books or recording new ideas.

4. It doesn't take very many people to do work of a theoretical nature. So the "they were practical people" explanation almost amounts to something as ridiculous as this: "Over a period of hundreds of years, only about forty ancient Romans were interested in doing theoretical work and it just happens that none of those forty people was particularly talented."