if the Romans were the only empire with relatively modern sailing vessels, I'm not sure lack of cannon would have hampered them.
And the inhabitants of most of the areas they'd be able to reach beyond the Mediterranean and Red Sea weren't going to sail out to meet them.
I guess a Roman conquest of the Americas would be pretty boring for archaeologists and architecture students. No Macchu Picchu or Teotihuacan, not even a Chan Chan, but the crumbling 2000 year old columns of Washington DC instead ;)
Of course, if you already have the technology to build boats, it's not going to take you long to copy the other guy's design.
Later sail warships mostly didn't use triangular sails either. I assume this is related to volume in some manner. Clipper ships were very fast but they had relatively little capacity so were used for high value goods.
And the inhabitants of most of the areas they'd be able to reach beyond the Mediterranean and Red Sea weren't going to sail out to meet them.
I guess a Roman conquest of the Americas would be pretty boring for archaeologists and architecture students. No Macchu Picchu or Teotihuacan, not even a Chan Chan, but the crumbling 2000 year old columns of Washington DC instead ;)