Caesar Lives!

This is a restart of my timeline in which Julius Caesar is not assassinated. It will mostly be in the style of historical prose, but there will be a few bits in a historical fiction form. I will use BC-AD dates since Christianity still emerges, but it will be somewhat different than in the OTL.






Historians have often asked how history would have been different if Marcus Junius Brutus had joined the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar rather than tipping him off to the plot. it is believed that he had already assigned his grand-nephew Octavian as his legal heir, and Marc Antony would almost certainly have inhierited control of Caesar's legions had the later been killed. But in any case, there was no assassination. Caesar, continuing being concerned about not being seen as a tyrant and a wannabe king, pardoned the conspirators, but warned them that if they caused any trouble while he was in the East they would be dealt with harshly when he returned, and Decimus Brutus was stripped of his command in command in Italian Gaul, which was given to Marcus Brutus. The foiled plot also lead to Caesar stop going out in public without bodyguards[1].

Caesar's legions set foot in Antioch with soaring morale, fueled by the desire to take back the aquillae, the eagle-topped legion standards, taken by the Parthians at Carrhae, and to avenge the hideous defeat the Parthians inflicted upon Crassus and his legions. Rather than crossing the open expanse of the Syrian Desert that made Crassus easy pickings for the Parthian's horse archers, Caesar hugged the foothills of the Anatolian Plateau until he reached the Tigris, and then traveled south with such speed that they surprised a large Parthian force of horse archers, cataphracts, and auxiliary infantry encamped along the Tigris near Asshur. The result was a massacre, about three quarters of the Parthian force was slain and the survivors fled.

The crushing defeat triggered panic in Ctesiphon. Much of the royal family and court evacuated to Susa, and Parthian king Pacorus decided to lead a counter-attack against Rome himself, another massive defeat and the empire would start to splinter, and he himself might lose his head to a usurper.

The forces of Caesar and Pacorus, about equally matched in strength, met about a day's march north of Ctesiphon. The Parthian forces pushed the Romans back and were coming close to breaking. One exception was the legion under the command of the young military tribune Gaius Octavius, Octavian, whose troops refused to budge against a massive cataphract charge. It could have been Pacorus' day, but it was not to be, as a well-aimed lead shot from an auxiliary slinger[2] crushed his skull and killed him. As news of the king of king's death spread the Parthian forces went into a messy retreat, which then a swift Roman advance turned into a rout. Both sides suffered huge losses, but the Parthians were now in no position to repel the Roman advance.

Parthia suffered several months of chaos as different members of the royal family claimed the throne, with Pacorus' younger brother finally coming out on top becoming Phraates IV[3], who sued for peace with Caesar, who was now in control of Mesopotamia and had started advancing on Susa. The peace was humiliating for the Parthians, who lost all of Mesopotamia and had to return the aquillae captured at Carrhae to Rome. It would no being peace, however, as the Parthian Empire was about to descend into civil war.

Caesar spent a year in Mesopotamia, organizing it into a Roman province. Then he traveled to Alexandria, almost certainly to see Cleopatra and his son by her, Caesarion. While in Alexandria, Caesar received word that Antony has drunk himself to death during a party and in the intervening weeks that fighting between pro-Caesar and anti-Caesar mobs was dragging the city of Rome into chaos. Cicero, old but still the geat orator, lamented on the Senate floor that "rule by Caesar, awful that it is, is preferable to the anarchy of the mob".

As news of Caesar returning to Rome reached the leaders of the anti-Caesar faction, led by Gaius Cassius and Decimus Brutus, fled Rome to Sardinia, but had trouble raising troops, their small forces were easily crushed by Caesar's veteran forces. The anti-Caesar leaders, backed in a corner, followed Cato the Younger before them, and committed suicide.

Caesar returned to Rome in Triumph. using the massive booty from the Parthian War, he settled thousands of his veterans in Italian Gaul and Gaul Narbonnensis. He commissioned the construction of something he had dreamed of for a long time, a public library in Rome. He publically made Octavian his heir. Then, he began his reformation of the Roman government.

The provinces were re-organized, and divided up into districts. Instead of pro-consuls and pro-praetors governing provinces, a Gubernator, "governor", would govern a province and an Prefectus Civitatis "prefect", would govern a district. garrison forces would be commanded by the district prefect while field forces would be commanded by the provincial governor. This system, Caesar hoped, would prevent there from being a commander powerful enough to threaten the authority of the Dictator.[4]

Caesar was a monarch in all but name.

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[1] In the OTL Caesar refused to use bodyguards in the weeks leading up to his assassination.

[2] These slingers are mostly Judean, I believe.

[3] In the OTL Phraates succeeded Pacorus after Pacorus was killed by a Roman army in 37 BC lead by a subordinate of Marc Antony.

[4]This division of command will cause the empire much trouble in the future.

Woah! Loving it. A couple of things though;

- I don't think Caesar would have been able to stipulate any of his offices going to Octavian, since offices weren't/couldn't be hereditary.
- "Imperator Provinciarum et Legionum" doesn't give the meaning of "supreme", just commander.
- With Caesar as Imperator and the provinces ruled by his gubernatores, where do the consuls and other Roman magistrates now stand?
- Has Caesar merely recognized Octavian as his heir, or legally adopted him? He had other nephews too, who were co-heirs along with Octavian, although Octavian was the only one he posthumously adopted.

Imperium from which Imperator comes roughly means power to command and is held by a large number of people who were thus Imperators. The word for supreme authority is Imperium Maius so if your looking for a title roughly equivelent to Supreme Chief of the Provinces and Legions I would suggest; Imperator Maius de Provinciarum et Legionum.

Secondly Caesar couldn't legislate for his new rank to go to Octavian on his death. He would do what the Emperors did in OTL and simply adopt Octavian as his son, name him as his heir and when Caesar dies all his clients and wealth would pass to Octavian and as Octavian would now have the entire Senate in his clientèle they would be regrant the various powers to him. That's what happened in OTL and while this is obviously an ATL the concept of openly hereditary office would be a PR complication that neither Caesar nor Octavian would want.

Also I have to dispute with you the idea that Caesar would abolish the Dictatorship and create a new role for himself. He was perfectly happy as Dictator-for-life, it gave him all the power he could want including immunity from the tribuncian veto and imeperium maius and was an already existing office. I suspect that if Mark Anthony hadn't abolished the Dictatorship in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination due to this continued need to deal with Brutus and Cassius then if and when Octavian triumphed he probably would have simply assumed the title of Dictator-for-life rather than his OTL adoption of Princeps and Augustus.

Velasco said:

Woah! Loving it. A couple of things though;

- I don't think Caesar would have been able to stipulate any of his offices going to Octavian, since offices weren't/couldn't be hereditary.
- "Imperator Provinciarum et Legionum" doesn't give the meaning of "supreme", just commander.
- With Caesar as Imperator and the provinces ruled by his gubernatores, where do the consuls and other Roman magistrates now stand?
- Has Caesar merely recognized Octavian as his heir, or legally adopted him? He had other nephews too, who were co-heirs along with Octavian, although Octavian was the only one he posthumously adopted.

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He who has the legions makes the rules. Caesar is trying to create a peaceful succession without destroying the pretense of republican government.

The old magistrates are still there, though for the consuls and praetors the elections are a forgone conclusion, they just confirm who Caesar has already picked, pretty much how they became under Augustus in the OTL.

Octavian has legally adopted Octavian.

Arachnid said:

Imperium from which Imperator comes roughly means power to command and is held by a large number of people who were thus Imperators. The word for supreme authority is Imperium Maius so if your looking for a title roughly equivelent to Supreme Chief of the Provinces and Legions I would suggest; Imperator Maius de Provinciarum et Legionum.

Secondly Caesar couldn't legislate for his new rank to go to Octavian on his death. He would do what the Emperors did in OTL and simply adopt Octavian as his son, name him as his heir and when Caesar dies all his clients and wealth would pass to Octavian and as Octavian would now have the entire Senate in his clientèle they would be regrant the various powers to him. That's what happened in OTL and while this is obviously an ATL the concept of openly hereditary office would be a PR complication that neither Caesar nor Octavian would want.

Also I have to dispute with you the idea that Caesar would abolish the Dictatorship and create a new role for himself. He was perfectly happy as Dictator-for-life, it gave him all the power he could want including immunity from the tribuncian veto and imeperium maius and was an already existing office. I suspect that if Mark Anthony hadn't abolished the Dictatorship in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination due to this continued need to deal with Brutus and Cassius then if and when Octavian triumphed he probably would have simply assumed the title of Dictator-for-life rather than his OTL adoption of Princeps and Augustus.

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This is a very good point, I will have to edit some things.

Parthia was Caesar's last great campaign, but he was not finished expanding the empire over the next few years he worked on bringing all of northern Hispania under Roman control.


Things were not so good in Parthia. Not long after he signed the humiliating peace with Rome, Phraates' rule came under threat by numerous rebellions across the empire. Rebellion was most intense in the southeast, the region of Parsa[1], where there was a general sentiment that Ahura Mazda had abandoned the Acrasids[2] and demanded a "true Persian" on the throne. The rebellion in Parsa consolidated around a powerful Persian nobleman named Bahram, who collected a large force and marched on Susa. Phraates and the rest of the court fled to Ecbatana. Bahram entered triumphant into Susa had had himself crowned Shahanshah, king of kings, explicitly claiming the throne. Rebellious nobles flocked to Bahram. Phraates, though, still had the loyalty of the Parthian homeland in northwestern Iran and into central Asia.

In Ecbatana, Phraates increasingly alienated the army and the court with his incompetence. Phraates' surviving brother Tiridates[3], with the support of the military, organized a coup, killed Phraates, and declared himself king. Tiridates II, much more competent than his brother, immediately went on the offensive and stabilized the situation in northern Iran. Tiridates and Bahram reached a stalemate, neither being able to advance on the other


In Alba[4], Cassivellaunus, one of the Brythic[5] leaders who opposed Caesar in his invasion of Britannia, absorbed several nearby cheifdoms into his Cassi tribe, renaming the enlarged nation the Catuvellauni. Cassivellaunus had one aim, strenthen and enlarge his kingdom so that it could not be easily picked off by Roman invasion. To this end he needed a force of warriors that was more disciplined and more willing to follow orders. To this end he made a deal with his nobles, if they followed orders and fought as an organized military formation rather than individual warriors looking for glory then he would reward them with land from conquered territory. It was a deal that would change Alba forever.

My the time he died and passed on his realm to his son, Tasciovanus, Cassivellaunus conquered the Trinovantes, Iceni, Cantiaci, Atrabates, Dobunni, and Corieltauvi. Conquered nobles who refused loyalty to him were killed, those who declared loyalty only lost part of their land, and were offered new land in conquered territory if they stayed loyal and fought according to his disciplined new rules. He bought the support of the druids, who gave him legitimacy. He introduced Latin script to write down the Cassi dialect of the Brythonic language, issued coinage, and created a new royal capital at Lundinion, on the River Tamwys (modern Lundynn[6]).

The foundation of the Kingdom of Alba had been laid.

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Marcus Tullius Cicero, Senatus Principes, died in 33 BC. Caesar, then 69 years old, gave the great orator a eulogy for the ages. His death was an end of an era. In many ways his death symbolized the death of the Republic.

Caesar was getting old, and he knew it. Preparing for the inevitable, he passed more powers to Octavian, now 30 years old and senior Consul (Caesar had lowered the age requirements for the magistrates). Octavian's friend and military advisor Marcus Agrippa was given the governorship of Mesopotamia. Egypt was stable under Cleopatra and Caesarion was entering his teens.

Rome was at peace, Caesar's last years were not uneventful. Caesar's Library was finished. Laws against shoddy apartment construction was rigorously enforced by another creation of Caesar, a professional police force for the city of Rome. The tax gathering system was reformed, the tax farmers were reigned in, getting a fixed cut of the collected tax money from the state rather than extorting extra money from Roman subjects for their own profit.

Gaius Julius Caesar died in 25 BC, at the age of 77. At the public funeral the mob took over taking Caesar's body and cremated it, calling him Divus Julius, to them, he had become a god. The next day Octavian, wearing the civic crown he won at the battle of Ctesiphon, was proclaimed Dicator Perpetuus by the Senate, at this point stuffed with Caesar's clients and so now Octavian's clients.

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[1] The old Persian homeland, modern Fars

[2] The Parthian dynasty

[3] This is a guess, I can't find Tiridates II's actual relationship to Phraates. Our knowlege of the Acrasid's family tree seems rather poor.

[4]TLL's name for Britain.

[5] From "Brython", TTL's term from British Celts.

[6]TTL's London and River Thames

Dictator Octavian took off where his great uncle left off. He commissioned a temple to Divus Julius, his now deified predecessor. Noricum, Raetia, Pannonia, Moesia, Judea and Cappadocia were absorbed and made provinces.

Germania proved a harder nut to crack. By AD 6 control was extended to the Elb river. In that year the Cherusci exploded into a massive rebellion, massacring several garrison forces. Retaliation was fast and furious on part of Octavian. He sent his a force lead by his son Lucius Julius Caesar Octavianus (the future dictator Lucius) and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus to crush the rebellion. The Cherusci leader Arminius lead a desperate response, but Arminius was taken out by an assassin, demoralizing the Cherusci. The Romans treated the rebellious Cherusci with extreme brutality, several thousand were crucified and many more were enslaved. Germania had been pacified through terror for the moment.[1]


Tasciovanus succeeded his father Cassivellaunus as King of Alba in 19BC, and continued his father's expansionist policies, forcing much of southern Alba[2] under the rule of the kingdom. The next few years featured more consolidation that conquest, the tribes of mountainous western Alba, such as the Silures and the Ordovices, were not worth the trouble, and to the north the Brigantes resisted Alban expansion. Tasciovanus responded by continuing the transformation of the army started by his father. The army was divided into 3 ranks:Equipment was standardized, cavalry were required to have a single-edged slashing sword, a mace, and several throwing spears. Heavy infantry, along with the longswords, had to have a dagger and a tall shield. Spearmen carried several throwing spears and a dagger along with their thrusting spear.

By 5BC Tasciovanus and his renovated forces were ready to take on the Brigantes. The result was several years of intense warfare as the Brigantes desperately tried to repulse the Alban military machine. Ultimately the Albans thrist for conquered land won out, by AD 3 all of the Brigantes territory was in Alban hands. In the space of two generations the southern half of the Alban island was tranformed from a collection of chiefdoms into being a feudal state controlled by a land-hungry aristocracy.


In Persia, rival kings Tiridates and Bahram continued in a stalemate. Both formed foreign alliances, Tiridates with the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom and Bahram with the Sakas (also called the Indo-Scythians), trying to get an upper hand. The next several years featured a cycle of warefare followed by truce followed by a renewal of fighting. The result was devastating for the economy and the livelihood of the common people. Realizing this, the two kings decided in 5BC to work out a peace and to accept a north-south division of the empire.

The great suffering caused by the war sparked off a wave of religious fervor, as people took solace in their Zoroastrian faith. numerous self-proclaimed holy men popped up, and some were quite missionary. Some of these missionaries would prove extremely influential to a growing diversity of Jewish sects in Judea. Tjough very few Jews converted to Zoroastrianism, the faith's dualistic theology strongly influenced these Jewish sects and is thought to be the background that influenced the teachings of Yeshua Ben Yosef and the new faith he created, Christianity.


In BC 14 Cleopatra VII Ptolemy died, probably of a stroke, making Caesarion the Pharaoh of Egypt. Soon after talking sole power, Caesarion embarked upon an engineering project that would change the world forever, the construction the Caesarian Canal between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, 200 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Though widened and deepened in recent centuries, it is the same canal in use today.[3] At the north end of the canal under construction Caesarion founded a new city, Caesaropolis.

Caesarion was a voracious reader and was deeply troubled by how few copies there were of so many important works. To this end he commissioned the Alexandria Library to start a book-copying program much more extensive then the copying it already engaged in, with massive teams of slave scribes copying books. This fortuitously coincided with the the recent development of what the Romans came to call the codex, the bound volume of pages we today associate with the word "book". Originally used mainly for notebooks, Caesarion's copying program quickly adopted the codex format, for it allowed each slave to work exclusively on making several copies of a single page, improving speed. the Library would keep at least 3 copies of each work, and sell the rest to other libraries (such as the new library in Rome) and to private buyers.[4]


In AD 16 Octavian died, his eldest son, Lucius, was proclaimed Dictator by the Senate and the Assembly.


[1] ITTL the Romans are much more intent on holding Germania, even if it means terrorizing the German tribes into obedience.

[2] "Alba" is the name of the whole island ITTL and is the name of the kingdom.

[3] Yes, a very early Suez Canal. This is have HUGE implications down the road.

[4]There will be a lot more books around ITTL, another thing that will have huge implications down the road.

Interesting timeline thus far, TaylorS. However, I don't think that a Suez Canal is at all possible at that point without an absolutely massive labor force - I'm talking hundreds of thousands of people. Even by the 1800s with steam excavators and modern technology it required a constant labor force of 30,000 people over 10 years, with up to 10% fatality rates. In ancient times, it would take many more workers to hand-excavate the canal. Where would Caesarion get all this labor? He can't get it from Egypt, because then the grain would rot in the fields and Rome would go hungry.

Cheers,
Ganesha

A couple of nitpicks:

- Octavian's son would be named Caius Julius Caesar, since sons usually took their father's name. (Octavian's own name was Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus).

- Suez Canal simply wouldn't have been possible. Canal of Pharaohs (Nile-Red Sea), however, might have already been in use, and either way would have been easy to restore.

- Are Caesarion and Octavian allies, peacefully coexisting? I'm not sure how well they'd be able to co-exist in a world where they're competing for dominance as Caesar's son. Not having access to Egypt would also significantly impact Octavian and future Emperors.

- With no more Ptolemies around, who does Caesarion marry?

Suez Canal is completely out. There is no way it could be built without the devotion of 100,000's of men for decades and there is no way that Egypt could provide the sort of resources necessary.

Velasco said:

- Are Caesarion and Octavian allies, peacefully coexisting? I'm not sure how well they'd be able to co-exist in a world where they're competing for dominance as Caesar's son. Not having access to Egypt would also significantly impact Octavian and future Emperors.

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Indeed; personally, I would've had Caesar adopt Caesarion, not Octavian. Octavian was a nobody before Caesar's death, whereas Caesarion had been in the public eye since shortly after his birth.

That's my dream POD, but what do I know?

Stolengood said:

Indeed; personally, I would've had Caesar adopt Caesarion, not Octavian. Octavian was a nobody before Caesar's death, whereas Caesarion had been in the public eye since shortly after his birth.

That's my dream POD, but what do I know?

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Completely impossible. He wasn't a Roman and had no legal tie to Caesar. it simply wouldn't have occurred to Caesar and even if an ASB had put the idea in his head you only have to look at the reaction to Mark Anthony declaring his children by Cleopatra his heirs to see the consequences. It would have given opponents of the Caesarian's a field day, almost none of Caesar's clients would have transferred their allegiance to Caesarion and Octavian or Mark Anthony would have been able to get a plebiscite either declaring the will invalid or confiscating the "Egyptian Bastards" assets in about 10 minutes.

Arachnid said:

Completely impossible. He wasn't a Roman and had no legal tie to Caesar. it simply wouldn't have occurred to Caesar and even if an ASB had put the idea in his head you only have to look at the reaction to Mark Anthony declaring his children by Cleopatra his heirs to see the consequences. It would have given opponents of the Caesarian's a field day, almost none of Caesar's clients would have transferred their allegiance to Caesarion and Octavian or Mark Anthony would have been able to get a plebiscite either declaring the will invalid or confiscating the "Egyptian Bastards" assets in about 10 minutes.

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Ahhhh, well; a man can dream...

Arachnid said:

Completely impossible. He wasn't a Roman and had no legal tie to Caesar. it simply wouldn't have occurred to Caesar and even if an ASB had put the idea in his head you only have to look at the reaction to Mark Anthony declaring his children by Cleopatra his heirs to see the consequences. It would have given opponents of the Caesarian's a field day, almost none of Caesar's clients would have transferred their allegiance to Caesarion and Octavian or Mark Anthony would have been able to get a plebiscite either declaring the will invalid or confiscating the "Egyptian Bastards" assets in about 10 minutes.

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Well, not entirely...Caesar could have granted Cleopatra Roman citizenship, legally married her and made the boy his heir. See for example how Augustus adopted ("adopted", but not really) his widow Livia Drusilla in his will, allowing her to become Julia Augusta and thus upping Tiberius' status as a "natural" instead of adopted member of the Julii.

Ganesha said:

Interesting timeline thus far, TaylorS. However, I don't think that a Suez Canal is at all possible at that point without an absolutely massive labor force - I'm talking hundreds of thousands of people. Even by the 1800s with steam excavators and modern technology it required a constant labor force of 30,000 people over 10 years, with up to 10% fatality rates. In ancient times, it would take many more workers to hand-excavate the canal. Where would Caesarion get all this labor? He can't get it from Egypt, because then the grain would rot in the fields and Rome would go hungry.

Cheers,
Ganesha

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Arachnid said:

Suez Canal is completely out. There is no way it could be built without the devotion of 100,000's of men for decades and there is no way that Egypt could provide the sort of resources necessary.

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Would it really be that difficult? Suez is a sea-level canal, so would it not take just a lot of digging?

Velasco said:

A couple of nitpicks:

- Octavian's son would be named Caius Julius Caesar, since sons usually took their father's name. (Octavian's own name was Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus).

- Suez Canal simply wouldn't have been possible. Canal of Pharaohs (Nile-Red Sea), however, might have already been in use, and either way would have been easy to restore.

- Are Caesarion and Octavian allies, peacefully coexisting? I'm not sure how well they'd be able to co-exist in a world where they're competing for dominance as Caesar's son. Not having access to Egypt would also significantly impact Octavian and future Emperors.

- With no more Ptolemies around, who does Caesarion marry?

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1. The Julii traditionally used the praenomena "Gaius" and "Lucius". Lucius is actually the SECOND male child of Octavian ITTL, I forgot to mention that Octavian's first son died from disease as a very young child. I intentionally left out who Octavian is married to because I could not figure out who.

2. I know of the Nile Canal of the Pharaohs, but I assumed it was too shallow for Mediterranean cargo vessels, but if the Early Suez Canal ideas cannot work, I'll have to use the Nile Canal.

3. The two were on good terms. Relations between Caesarion and Rome will be a topic for the next update. For now I will just say that Dictator Lucius will not die a natural death.

Stolengood said:

Indeed; personally, I would've had Caesar adopt Caesarion, not Octavian. Octavian was a nobody before Caesar's death, whereas Caesarion had been in the public eye since shortly after his birth.

That's my dream POD, but what do I know?

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But Caesarion was not a Roman citizen.

In the OTL Caesar intended to groom Octavian into a successor, but that was cut short by the assassination.

Oh, and does anyone know a good list of plausible Old Brythonic and Middle Persian names?

Velasco said:

Well, not entirely...Caesar could have granted Cleopatra Roman citizenship, legally married her and made the boy his heir. See for example how Augustus adopted ("adopted", but not really) his widow Livia Drusilla in his will, allowing her to become Julia Augusta and thus upping Tiberius' status as a "natural" instead of adopted member of the Julii.

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Yes; thank you. My point exactly.

Velasco said:

Well, not entirely...Caesar could have granted Cleopatra Roman citizenship, legally married her and made the boy his heir. See for example how Augustus adopted ("adopted", but not really) his widow Livia Drusilla in his will, allowing her to become Julia Augusta and thus upping Tiberius' status as a "natural" instead of adopted member of the Julii.

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I'm sorry but that simply isn't possible. Remember we are talking about the (twilight of the) Republican era here. The Social War was only 45 years ago where Rome had almost been destroyed over it's refusal to grant citizenship to Italians. That was still in living memory and there were still a sizeable number of people didn't regard Italians as proper Romans. It would be a massive mistake to map the more liberal attitudes of the Imperial era onto this period. Roman citizenship was still a massive deal and it was still largely race citizenship rather than civic citizenship. If you look at the debates over extending citizenship to Italians the main thrust was that they "they speak our tongue and are our cousins in blood", in the end that one out and in the aftermath of the Social War a sufficient number could be persuaded that the Italians were Roman enough to deserve citizenship. Cleopatra spoke Greek as her first language and was not at all Roman or Latin in blood. While Caesar and others had granted citizenship more widely and some non-Italians had even entered Senate there was still massive, open discrimination against them, not far short of that directed at Hiram Revels i.e. the first Black Senator. It was universally seen as a sign of Caesar's power that he was able to get away with that against the fervent opposition of pretty much all of the Senate. Another factor is that Roman citizenship was exclusive, there was no-duel citizenship, so for Cleopatra to become a Roman citizen she would have to abdicate all her Egyptian titles and ranks. So Cleopatra VII Philopator would have to become Julia Caesaris assuming she follows practice and takes her benefactors name.
What's more Cleopatra was incredibly unpopular, not least because of her complete refusal to acknowledge Roman mores and attitudes. See for example the massive fuss over the pomerium. Add to that the visceral dislike of the appearance of Kingship and Gaius Julius Caesar would have to be stark raving bonkers to marry her. He could get away with adultery because that enhanced his auctoritas but for him to marry her would have been universally seen as both a stated intention to establish an Egyptian style, i.e. foreign, formal, absolute Monarchy. That would have caused problems with even his most devoted partisans just as it did Mark Anthony. A good comparison is if ASB's had enabled George Washington to marry Queen Victoria and have them declare that their children would rule the combined Kingdoms of Great Britain and America. Popular reaction to that should provide a useful guide.
In fact we actually have a clear example of what the consequences of Caesar adopting Caesarion or marrying Cleopatra. The Donations of Alexandria where Mark Anthony named Caesarion as Caesars heir, married Cleopatra and declared his children by her legitimate etc. pretty much what you suggest Caesar should have done. The result was that public opinion and the Senate swung massively behind Octavian and Mark Anthony was abandoned by a significant number his Roman followers.
Now Caesar would be in a much stronger situation than Mark Anthony was so he might get such a settlement acknowledged during his lifetime. But it would have as much weight as the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and unlike Maria Theresa Caesarion wouldn't have the Austrian Army to back him up.
There is simply no way short of ASB or Caesar living to 120 and enforcing a substantial change in Roman attitudes to:
a.) Citizenship/Race
b.) Cleopatra
c.) Eastern Kingship
d.) Inheritance

When Lucius Julius Caesar took up the Dictatorship in AD 16 the empire was going from strength to strength. The frontiers were stable and there were no rebellions. That was about to change, however.

In 21 the province of Judea exploded in revolt. Zoroastrian ideas about the dualism of Good and Evil had been percolating into Judaism for years, and to an increasing number of Judean Jews the Romans were not just oppressive rulers, they were Evil Incarnate. The rebels, calling themselves the Zealots, were poorly equipped and had essentially no military training, but they fought fanatically, repulsing a Roman garrison near Jerusalem and taking control of the city, massacring all the resident Roman citizens.

Lucius personally lead a large force to crush the rebellion. Even ethno-religious fanaticism could not defeat a professional force of Roman soldiers, and Jerusalem was starved into submission. Lucius promised mercy to the city if they turned against the rebels and opened the gates, which they did. The surviving rebels were rounded up and crucified.

Following the suppression of the rebellion, Lucius would stop in Alexandria to tidy up diplomatic relations with Caesarion, he would not make it back to Rome. A few hours after the two Caesars enjoyed a lavish dinner Lucius fell violently ill. By the next morning he was dead.

Upon hearing of the death Rome went into a panic. Some senators called for a restoration of republican government, but most just wanted to find a new dictator. Despite not being a Roman citizen Caesarion started engaging in massive bribery, telling senators and magistrates that he would renounce his crown and incorporate Egypt into the empire. In reaction many others sided with the prominent senator Publius Vitellius [1] and his son, the praetor Lucius Vitellius.

Caesarion "won" the bribery game and was proclaimed dictator. The supporters of the Vitellii stormed out of the Senate House and proclaimed the elder Vitellius dictator. The Vitellii and their supporters ran to Spain, building up a power base in the western parts of the Empire. Most insidiously, they spread propaganda accusing Caesarion of poisoning Lucius, which was extremely damaging to Caesarion's position and lead an increasing number of governors, prefects, and their soldiers to defect to Vitellius. Caesarion tried to take the initiative and invaded Spain, but was bogged down because he had to keep many men in the East to fight off the forces of pro-Vitellius governors.

Unsuccessful, Caesarion had to retreat to Italy to defend the peninsula from those eastern forces. Vitellius boldly marched his forces through Gaul and into Italy and defeated a pro-Caesarion force in Etruria near Florentia[2], he allowed the survivors to join his side. Caesarion fled Italy for Egypt, but he knew his luck was running out. As Vitellius approached Alexandria Caesarion took poison, killing himself.

The Civil war last a year and a half. The Julian dynasty was over, the Vitellian dynasty had begun.


[1] Grandfather of "Emperor" Vitellius of the Year of The Four Emperors in the OTL.

[2] Florence.

Very interesting timeline. I'm definately subbed.

The ascension of Vitellius I[1] marks the start of a century and a half of stability in the Empire, there still were coups, counter-coups, and provincial rebellions, but no large scale, damaging civil wars like those of the Late Republic and the Julian Dynasty.

Following the defeat of the defeat of Caesarion Egypt was incorporated as a province of the Empire. work on the great canal Caesarion had started, but it was scaled back, still large enough for barges and smaller ocean-going cargo ships to pass through, but still much too small for the largest, Vitellius considered the epic canal of Caesarion's visions too costly and the possibility of enormous corvee work gangs revolting was too high. The canal, completed in 35 AD, was still a wonder of the world, and allowed for increased trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Along with goods, the increased traffic also brought a group of Buddhist monks, who set up a monastery in Africa Province, just west of Carthage, in 39 AD. Though it was just one small monastery, it would have a huge impact on the future.


Meanwhile, Judea was in a religious uproar over the preaching of a radical itinerant preacher named Yeshua Ben Yosef, the son of a carpenter from northern Judea. Despite our calender having it's division point as the year he was supposedly born, this was likely a chronological error and he was actually born around 6 BC. In his late teens he ran off from his family and joined one of the Zoroastrian-influenced radical spiritualist Jewish sects which were gaining in popularity, this one lead by a young charismatic preacher known to history as John the Baptizer[2], so named because of the practice of baptism, or ritual submersion in a body of water, usually the River Jordan, in order to purity the soul of sin.

In one of these baptisms Yeshua had a vision of God's spirit entering him claiming him as "God's Son" who will redeem the world. We don't know what the rest of fellow sect members thought of this "revelation", but given that we next here of him meditating along in the desert, they obviously thought he was mad. John never appears in the historical record again, some scholars believe he was killed during the Jewish Rebellion.

The same cannot be said about Yeshua, however, as he then started preaching an otherworldly message inspired by the failure of the revolt, his most well know aphorisms being, of course, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and gave to God what is God's" and "the Kingdom of God is within you"

This message infuriated the surviving Zealots. In 33 Yeshua was preaching in Jerusalem and was confronted by a gang of young Zealots who murdered him just before the start of Passover. They thought they got rid of a problem, instead they created a martyr. 3 days after his death, on a Sunday, several of his followers, including his mother, claimed to have seen Yeshua risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Though his followers still considered themselves Jews, that would soon change, a new religion was born, Christianity, after Greek word Χριστοσ (Khristos) "Messiah".


Tasciovanus' long reign, dying in 26, was exceptional. Under his and his father's reigns they had created a powerful kingdom out of a collection of petty chiefdoms. But his long life also meant lots of sons, and they immediately started fighting over the Alban throne. It was possible that 2 generations of brilliant leadership would be for naught and the kingdom would fall apart, but finally, in 31, one of the contestants, Lugorix, defeated his rivals and unified the country. The kingdom would take some time to heal, and Irish raiders, who were taking advantage of the chaos to raid and loot the western coasts, needed to be dealt with. Lugorix needed a navy and was determined to build one.


By 30 Tiridates and Bahram were dead, succeeded by their sons Mithridates and Shapur. Mithridates was a poor leader and was likely insane, while Shapur was just the opposite. The weak Parthian king make Shapur decide that this was the right time to defeat the Parthians and re-unify Persia. Without a strong leader, the Parthian generals argued among themselves and could not stop Shapur's advance. whole regiments started defecting. By the middle of 30 the Parthians knew the game was up. The murdered Mithridates and surrendered Ecbatana to Shapur and swore alliance and to him as Shahanshah. Persia was once again a united empire.

This was bad news from the Bactrians, who had been allied with the Parthians. One of the first things Shapur did after consolidating his power was to crush the Graeco-Bacrian Kingdom. after several years of off-again-on-again fighting the kingdom was defeated and large parts of it annexed. the remaining rump state was eventually conquered by Kushans from the north.

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Vitellius I died in 40, passing the empire to his son, who became Dicator Vitellius II


[1] The Romans at this time did not "number" their leaders, the regnal numbers are a later invention of historians ITTL.

[2] A slightly different John the Baptist.Χριστοσ