DBWI: Alexander's Premature Death

The Republic of Rome rises over all!

OK - stop laughing.
I know Rome was a joke, one more speedbump over which the Great One drove - but I recently read a book on it.

I'm not one to impinge on the Great One's memory (I don't like bonfires) but according to this book - published out of Neo-Nippon of all places - Alexander actually respected the Romans far more than the Persians. Their citizen soldiers gave him a better fight than the thrice-cursed Immortals ever did.

Hmm. Might be interesting - maybe a Greek East and a Roman West? I'm not absurd enough to think that Rome could ever overcome Macedonia - especially not back then, but they were pretty much surrounded by a bunch of barbarian tribes.

Who know - maybe a Roman Republic Great Power.
Yeah - and maybe I'm just being silly too.

Mike Turcotte
 
Rome isn't that bad an idea. Obviously destiny lay with the Great One and his decedents.
However if the Destiny wasn't real and Alexanders death did happen then the Med could offer up some challenges to Greek rule. Rome and Carthage proved themselves worthy opponents before their inevitable destruction by the Alaxanders.
 
The Republic of Rome rises over all!

OK - stop laughing.
I know Rome was a joke, one more speedbump over which the Great One drove - but I recently read a book on it.

I'm not one to impinge on the Great One's memory (I don't like bonfires) but according to this book - published out of Neo-Nippon of all places - Alexander actually respected the Romans far more than the Persians. Their citizen soldiers gave him a better fight than the thrice-cursed Immortals ever did.

Hmm. Might be interesting - maybe a Greek East and a Roman West? I'm not absurd enough to think that Rome could ever overcome Macedonia - especially not back then, but they were pretty much surrounded by a bunch of barbarian tribes.

Who know - maybe a Roman Republic Great Power.
Yeah - and maybe I'm just being silly too.

Mike Turcotte
Actually, you may be on to something. Rome gave Alexander a much greater challenge than any city-state had the right to do.

However, I find it hard to see them progressing beyond the Italian peninsula. After all, they had major struggles against the Samnites, so I find it difficult to believe that they could have beaten Carthage or Gaul on their own turf. On the other hand, I doubt anybody believed Macedonia would rise to become the dominant power in the world, so I guess anything's possible.
 
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That sounds like a rather dumb timeline.

Well the Macedonians had a history of violent successions so I don't think its out of the possibility. The peaceful secession of parts of Alexander's empire was very much the exception (the Seleucids in Italy, Carthage reasserting its independence, and Ptolemy breaking off with southern Spain).

There was conflict when Alexander IV took over-the attempted revolt by Greco-Baktria, the temporary loss of the Indian provinces to Chandragupta, so there's definitely the possibility of that spreading into empire wide conflict. Perhaps if the attempted assassination of Alexander IV at the start of his reign by the head of his companions, Perdiccas, succeeds, that could cause the empire to break into civil war.
 
Actually, you may be on to something. Rome gave Alexander a much greater challenge than any city-state had the right to do.

However, I find it hard to see them progressing beyond the Italian peninsula. After all, they had major struggles against the Samnites, so I find it difficult to believe that they could have beaten Carthage or Gaul on their own turf. On the other hand, I doubt anybody believed Macedonia would rise to become the dominant power in the world, so I guess anything's possible.

Yeah, I dunno ... not much info on ancient failed city-states (outside of Greece, of course). The Romans had some interesting military formations (look up 'Legion' and 'Cohort') and they did put a hurt on some Barbarians. Of course, projecting power across the Alps is ... tricky for an ancient culture and economy.

Macedonia is pretty predicatable, though. Look at it - nice fertile land, close enough the ancient Greek, Near-East, Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures to glean their innovations and advances, and yet far away enough to avoid the almost constant wars that sapped the others' strength, and then the Great One and his heirs arrive on the scene. With a strategic backfield of barbarians all the way west to the Atlantis Ocean, and north to the Alexandrian Sea (***Baltic***) they could draw on considerable strength with little competition. And given the cultural corruption of the Persians in particular, well, it wasn't foregone, but the Great One made it so.

Mike Turcotte
 
Before Phillip, the Macedonian state was weak and on the verge of collapse from all sides to say nothing of the turmoil from within. I'm not sure the Romans could do much more than take Italy proper, most of which they already had when Alexander rolled in in 318. I don't believe they would ever be able to take the cities of Megas Hellas (OOC: Magna Graecia) though, since they'd almost certainly be supported by Greeks back in Greece.
 
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