Imperii Romani Americae - An Roman America TL

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    • Paladín Wulfen

    Paladín Wulfen

    Roma-escena-gladiator.jpg

    "The great empires are not shy." - Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 AD - ca. 120 AD)​

    In the 1st century of our era. Europe was largely dominated by the most prosperous empire the West had ever seen. The Roman Empire, with a population of 80 million people. It was at that time the civilization with the most sophisticated technology in the world; weapons, crops and ships were the Romans the most advanced. Scipio and his family managed to crush and make Rome control the Mediterranean. Julius Caesar, defeated an ancient enemy who came to sack Holy Rome; The roosters. Octavian Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, abolished the corrupt and degenerate Roman Republic by adopting the Empire. While Emperor Claudius, conquered Britannia. And the Emperor Trajan, defeated the Dacians, securing the gold mines and instilling as natural defenses, the Carpathian mountains.

    In the reign of Marcus Aurelius, there was an event that would mark the change in the timeline. A Roman businessman in Britannia, obtained permission to explore the Septentrionalis Oceanus (North Sea) in search of islands that would serve as port-camps for the British-Roman whaling industry. Thanks to this enterprising businessman, they found an archipelago consisting of 18 islands of volcanic origin, of which 17 are habitable. Its territory is predominantly mountainous, with cliffs that serve as habitat for thousands of seabirds. It is dominated by grasslands and lacks forests. The Explorers called them Insulas cetegrandias (OTL: Faroe Islands), motivated by a current of curiosity as Roman fishermen and whalers went further north.

    Later the next extension of land to be found was an island with a volcano at the same time that was characterized by deserts, mountains, glaciers and glacial rivers that flow towards the sea through the lowlands. The island was called Terra Nives. (OTL: Iceland) is quickly becoming a major source of seafood, from fish to whales to ivory.

    Around 170, a huge island was found in the far North. The explorers called it Glacialis Terra (OTL: Greenland)) Glacialis Terra stood out for being exclusively dedicated to fishing and exporting fish. Shrimp exports became the largest source of entry for the economy. At the same time the first people from the north were found. These Barbarus Septentrionalis, (OTL: Inuit) semi-nomads were fishermen and hunters who gathered in lakes, seas, ice shelves and tundra. While there are some thoughts that the Barbarus Septentrionalis were hostile to early Roman explorers, fishermen, and whalers, early relationships with whaling stations along the coast were based on a mutual interest in trade on the other hand, the Barbarians. They do not appear to have interfered with Roman operations, but raided the stations in winter, taking tools and articles of worked iron, which they adapted to their own needs.
     
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    • Otto Kretschmer

    Banned
    It is certainly well written. I leave plausibility to be judged by others ;)

    The big issue is to find a motivation for the Romans to build ocean going vessels and explore the waters to the west while they never did this OTL.
     
    Zolta

    Zolta

    Good read.

    One point though. Amerigo Vespucci, America's namesake, was born in the 1400s. So, it is improbable for the New World to be called America. Maybe "Terra Nova" would be an apt name.
     
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    SpaceOrbisGaming

    SpaceOrbisGaming

    Banned
    Paladín Wulfen said:
    Roma-escena-gladiator.jpg

    "The great empires are not shy." - Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 AD - ca. 120 AD)​

    In the 1st century of our era. Europe was largely dominated by the most prosperous empire the West had ever seen. The Roman Empire, with a population of 80 million people. It was at that time the civilization with the most sophisticated technology in the world; weapons, crops and ships were the Romans the most advanced. Scipio and his family managed to crush and make Rome control the Mediterranean. Julius Caesar, defeated an ancient enemy who came to sack Holy Rome; The roosters. Octavian Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, abolished the corrupt and degenerate Roman Republic by adopting the Empire. While Emperor Claudius, conquered Britannia. And the Emperor Trajan, defeated the Dacians, securing the gold mines and instilling as natural defenses, the Carpathian mountains.

    In the reign of Marcus Aurelius, there was an event that would mark the change in the timeline. A Roman businessman in Britannia, obtained permission to explore the Septentrionalis Oceanus (North Sea) in search of islands that would serve as port-camps for the British-Roman whaling industry. Thanks to this enterprising businessman, they found an archipelago consisting of 18 islands of volcanic origin, of which 17 are habitable. Its territory is predominantly mountainous, with cliffs that serve as habitat for thousands of seabirds. It is dominated by grasslands and lacks forests. The Explorers called them Insulas cetegrandias (OTL: Faroe Islands), motivated by a current of curiosity as Roman fishermen and whalers went further north.

    Later the next extension of land to be found was an island with a volcano at the same time that was characterized by deserts, mountains, glaciers and glacial rivers that flow towards the sea through the lowlands. The island was called Terra Nives. (OTL: Iceland) is quickly becoming a major source of seafood, from fish to whales to ivory.

    Around 170, a huge island was found in the far North. The explorers called it Glacialis Terra (OTL: Greenland)) Glacialis Terra stood out for being exclusively dedicated to fishing and exporting fish. Shrimp exports became the largest source of entry for the economy. At the same time the first people from the north were found. These Barbarus Septentrionalis, (OTL: Inuit) semi-nomads were fishermen and hunters who gathered in lakes, seas, ice shelves and tundra. While there are some thoughts that the Barbarus Septentrionalis were hostile to early Roman explorers, fishermen, and whalers, early relationships with whaling stations along the coast were based on a mutual interest in trade on the other hand, the Barbarians. They do not appear to have interfered with Roman operations, but raided the stations in winter, taking tools and articles of worked iron, which they adapted to their own needs.
    Click to expand...
    I can't say how likely this is given how little I know of Roman history as a whole aside from what few shows are set in the era. But I would find it unlikely that they could make such a trip in the late second century. I don't think ship-making tech was good enough to deal with a transAtlantic trip. So aside from some people getting blown off course and landing on said islands nobody should know anything about them, at least for a while.

    These people could be the last bits of the empire after the fifth century. Looking at when Iceland was found it seems you have until the 870s before anybody else would try to do anything with it. So you have around 600 odd years to build this place up.
     
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    Chapter 1. "Terranova"
  • Index
    • Paladín Wulfen

    Paladín Wulfen

    In 180, Marcus Aurelius fell ill in his military barracks near the city of Sirmium in Pannonia. he ediately he was deified and his ashes were returned to Rome, where they rested in Hadrian's mausoleum. His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple, built in Rome. Marco was succeeded by his son Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had ruled jointly since 177. Commodus thanks to the reminder of a businessman Patrician in Rome with investments in the North. Comodo had two colonies founded on Glacialis Terra and Terra Nives; Colonia Marcus Aurelius Verus Glacialis and Colonia Marcus Aurelius Verus Nives were founded respectively.

    The cartographers and explorers of the Roman Empire did not take long to start a task destined mainly to know the North. This period was also marked by the increase in population in the Glacialis and Nives colonies together with a partial coastal exploration of Scandinavia greater than that done before at the time that slaves were collected from it. The Slaves of Scandia (Roman name for Scandinavia) showed greater resistance to cold than those born to the south, so preference was taken to these. But it was in 193, when Rome found Newfoundland. But its discovery went missing due to the Civil Conflict called the Year of the Five Emperors until whaling merchants told Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus in 200 about the Northern Colonies.

    london_visual_1.jpg
    But the situation changed when the Romans had their first contact with the Natives of Newfoundland. The natives of the island were found with the body painted with red ocher and they were soon called by the Romans as Rubrum Picti (painted or tattooed people red) The Rubrum Picti, showed a fearful and timid attitude towards the Romans, fleeing from they even leaving their villages, would move inland as the Roman settlements grew. The Rubrum Picti would visit their old camps only to collect metal objects. They would also collect tools, shelters, and building materials left behind by Roman fishermen who had dried and cured their catch before taking them to Europe at the end of the season. But the situation changed when the Emperor authorized the expansion to those lands. The following year, in Terra Nova the first Colony with 50,000 inhabitants was founded; It was called Nova Roma, in reference to what would be the Rome of a new world.
     
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    • garfieldleifrag

    On one had, the natives will be a lot smaller in number and less organized, but the Romans will also have less advanced weapons and ships (for supplying forces in the New World) than the Spanish. Were smallpox, measles, ect. present in Europe at this time? If they weren't, it will be much harder for the Romans than OTL Europeans.
     

    TimeReveler

    Paladín Wulfen said:
    characterized by deserts, mountains, glaciers and glacial rivers
    Click to expand...
    Because of the Gulf Stream, Iceland receives a lot of rain and had temperate rainforests, before, you know, the Vikings (and their sheep) deforested it.

    Zolta said:
    Good read.

    One point though. Amerigo Vespucci, Americas' namesake, was born in the 1400s. So, it is improbable for the New World to be called America. Maybe "Terra Nova" would be an apt name.
    Click to expand...
    Turtle Island? I think that's the First Nations name for North America.
     
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    Zolta

    Zolta

    TimeReveler said:
    Because of the Gulf Stream, Iceland receives a lot of rain and had temperate rainforests, before, you know, the Vikings (and their sheep) deforested it.


    Turtle Island? I think that's the First Nations name for North America.
    Click to expand...
    Could be used for North America. Though Turtle Island wouldn't do. Testuda would appeal to Legionnaires more, you know for the Testudo, the military formation, which means turtle.
     

    Skraea

    Not bad. The Inuit were latecomers to Greenland though, roughly arriving after the Norse. You might want to try the Dorset people who were displaced by the Thule who themselves were displaced by the Inuit. And the mammoth is probably extant. But, if they go south to Mesoamerica, I think the Olmecs and Mayans are developing their civilizations and the Moche should be dominant in the Andes by then.
     
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    cloistered scholar

    I think part of the reason people failed to fully colonize Iceland was because they brought seed used to a different climate with them. When the norse showed up, they brought seeds used to scandinavia, not the british isels.
     
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