Errr... Didn't they already have Asian rice? How would African rice do better.
Res Publica Invicta: The Roman Republic Triumphant
- Thread starter DominusNovus
- Start date
Not really. "Asian rice" was considered to be a spice and used by the Romans (in Imperial times, not sure about this stage of Republican Rome) as a medicine to cure stomachache (and the so called "riso in bianco" in Italy is still pretty common as a meal for ill people, just as a sidenote). The use of rice as a staple in Italy began, if I am not mistaken, in the late XIV century (at least in northern Italy). So the introduction of any kind or rice which can be grown in Italy, exploited this early, could be a boon to whomever holds the Po river basin (nowadays responsible for the production of a huge share of European rice).
I'll admit that's the claim with the least amount of evidence, but there is cotton native to Africa. As for its cultivation, my source claims it was grown in ancient times, though I haven't been able to find a mention of this anywhere else.
Asian rice was introduced into the Mediterranean during the medieval period, so African rice would suffice until the higher yielding Asian rice is introduced.
As already mentioned, the Romans seem to have imported small amounts of rice from India as a spice. I’d love to be privy to any of those transactions early on enough in the supply chain where Indian merchants were getting spice-level profits for a grain.
As far as African rice, it does seem to be a bit hardier than Asian rice.
It’d be too much of a cop-out to imagine an early development of Nerica rice, but it would be fun.
Excellent TL, always good to see a Roman Republic timeline. Also you've nailed the POD, focused on the Punic Wars. Avoiding the 2nd avoids mobilising 750k men, losing 500k, and devastating the countryside and small-farmer class. Which provides the grounds to slow the consolidation of land. I wonder if having Carthage integrated into Rome could have an impact on the possibility of a Roman Commercial Revolution.
Also very interesting choice with introducing a new element into Roman agriculture. OTL, Roman agriculture was so destructive, many parts of Italy once farmed were wholesale abandoned in the late Empire. Anything that can improve the long-term state of the soil and land is an important change.
Also very interesting choice with introducing a new element into Roman agriculture. OTL, Roman agriculture was so destructive, many parts of Italy once farmed were wholesale abandoned in the late Empire. Anything that can improve the long-term state of the soil and land is an important change.
I just want to let everyone know that this is still on the back burner. Between grad school and fatherhood, I don't have the mental bandwidth to give this as much time as it deserves, but I'm always plugging away at it.
A few economic/technological developments that will happen early (just to intrigue readers):
- The coffee bean will be discovered early, which will promote trade even more in the Red Sea and improve the economies of Axum and Arabia Felix. This will likely happen within the next century or so of the timeline, as cultivation of tagasaste spreads to the region (just to piggyback off the likely apocryphal tale of sheep munching on coffee beans). Ideally, this increase in wealth will help the region maintain their irrigation and dam networks. I'm a bit of a regenerative agriculture booster, and good water management is a key component, so overall, this would be good not just for the economies of the region, but also their ecology. Take, for example, the Al Baydha project in Saudi Arabia (and similar projects in the region). It is really just marrying 21st century science and traditional techniques that date back millennia, and this helps produce a feedback loop that improves the biomass of the region.
- Gunpowder is likely to be developed by alchemists in Hellenistic Egypt, and diffused from there. I think the greater contacts with India due to the expansion of Bactria in this timeline, as well as the greater contact with China that that will lead to, can be a useful catalyst. Plus, developing gunpowder really is just dumb luck. It is my intention for this to mean not just legions with muskets but for it to lead to phalanxes with them, as well. Just to give the Romans a bit of a challenge when it comes to unifying the Mediterranean. This is a Roman-wank, but I don't want to make it that easy on them - butterflying away the Second Punic War is already a huge advantage. Of course, firearms would still be a few centuries into the future.
- As suggested in previous posts, the increase in wool cultivation will lead to cheaper cloth, which will help stimulate the invention and production of paper, which will help the development of the printing press, per James Burke's version of technological development:
- I've been toying, back and forth, with an earlier discovery of the New World, to allow for an exchange of crops, livestock, and various technologies. Haven't made a decision either way on that, but if some enterprising Carthaginian navigators learn the usefulness of biochar from Amazonian peoples, that would be very fun. In particular, biochar would be a great way for desert agriculture to move beyond just pastoralism (which is booming in this timeline anyway) and would be a great additive to all that extra sheep dung. On the other hand, the plagues that are an inevitable outcome of such a discovery would be a big variable that I haven't decided how I want to address. It might be that the mouth of the Amazon is discovered, some small amount of trading is conducted, but then, due to Old World plagues, the population is wiped out, so the trade network collapses and nobody bothers to go back there for a few generations. The existence of land far to the west of Africa is known, but nobody wants to colonize the region, and there's nobody to trade with, so why bother?
A few economic/technological developments that will happen early (just to intrigue readers):
- The coffee bean will be discovered early, which will promote trade even more in the Red Sea and improve the economies of Axum and Arabia Felix. This will likely happen within the next century or so of the timeline, as cultivation of tagasaste spreads to the region (just to piggyback off the likely apocryphal tale of sheep munching on coffee beans). Ideally, this increase in wealth will help the region maintain their irrigation and dam networks. I'm a bit of a regenerative agriculture booster, and good water management is a key component, so overall, this would be good not just for the economies of the region, but also their ecology. Take, for example, the Al Baydha project in Saudi Arabia (and similar projects in the region). It is really just marrying 21st century science and traditional techniques that date back millennia, and this helps produce a feedback loop that improves the biomass of the region.
- Gunpowder is likely to be developed by alchemists in Hellenistic Egypt, and diffused from there. I think the greater contacts with India due to the expansion of Bactria in this timeline, as well as the greater contact with China that that will lead to, can be a useful catalyst. Plus, developing gunpowder really is just dumb luck. It is my intention for this to mean not just legions with muskets but for it to lead to phalanxes with them, as well. Just to give the Romans a bit of a challenge when it comes to unifying the Mediterranean. This is a Roman-wank, but I don't want to make it that easy on them - butterflying away the Second Punic War is already a huge advantage. Of course, firearms would still be a few centuries into the future.
- As suggested in previous posts, the increase in wool cultivation will lead to cheaper cloth, which will help stimulate the invention and production of paper, which will help the development of the printing press, per James Burke's version of technological development:
- I've been toying, back and forth, with an earlier discovery of the New World, to allow for an exchange of crops, livestock, and various technologies. Haven't made a decision either way on that, but if some enterprising Carthaginian navigators learn the usefulness of biochar from Amazonian peoples, that would be very fun. In particular, biochar would be a great way for desert agriculture to move beyond just pastoralism (which is booming in this timeline anyway) and would be a great additive to all that extra sheep dung. On the other hand, the plagues that are an inevitable outcome of such a discovery would be a big variable that I haven't decided how I want to address. It might be that the mouth of the Amazon is discovered, some small amount of trading is conducted, but then, due to Old World plagues, the population is wiped out, so the trade network collapses and nobody bothers to go back there for a few generations. The existence of land far to the west of Africa is known, but nobody wants to colonize the region, and there's nobody to trade with, so why bother?
Bactrian Syncretism under Alexander V Aniketos (201-171 BC)
Bactrian Syncretism under Alexander V Aniketos
When Demetrius, king of Bactria, died in 201 BC, his young son, Alexander, ascended to the throne. The succession was fairly orderly, and only involved the elimination of a small cadre of courtiers and officers that presented a potential threat to his ascension. Alexander was relatively untested at the time, and the first to challenge the new king were the Parthians. The burgeoning empire in Persia, built off the collapsing remains of the Seleucid dynasty, knew that the conquests of Demetrius had jeopardized their own aspirations and they saw the potential to destabilize the Bactrians and secure eastern Persia under their own rule.
Alexander, however, proved to be up to the challenge presented by his neighbors to the west, and met the Parthian challenge head on. Though Alexander was not the brilliant commander that Alexander the Great - his claimed ancestor - clearly had been, he was able to secure a series of modest victories against Arsaces II as the Parthians were first pushed out of Bactrian territory, and then into Parthian territory. Though none of these battles were decisive on the battlefield themselves, Alexander secured the ultimate political coup when his forces captured Arsaces after their final battle. The Parthian army had continually eluded the young king’s attempts to destroy them, but capturing their own king enabled Alexander to grant clemency in return for fealty. The two kings were almost kin, with both men representing the syncretization of the nomadic Dahae people, Alexander being half Greek and half Pissuri, and Arsaces being a relatively Persianized Parni. With the vassalage of the Parthian Kingdom, Alexander nominally now ruled all of Persia east of Mesopotamia, a vast realm in its own right.
He did not, however, wish to wage war against the Ptolemaic client, the rump Seleucid state in Mesopotamia and considered Egypt too strong a foe at this juncture to challenge. Though the allure of conquering the rest of Alexander the Great‘s Empire in the opposite direction had some poetic appeal, this new Alexander saw fit to expand in other directions. To this end, he opened up relations with Ptolemy V Epiphanes and negotiated a formal peace treaty that was concluded by the marriage of Ptolemy to Alexander’s sister, Olympias in 198 BC. This dynastic tie was particularly important to Alexander because it was a tacit admission by the Ptolemaic dynasty that the pretensions of he and his father to be direct descendants of Alexander the Great were, in fact, true. Those claims would eventually be embraced more explicitly by Ptolemy’s son, who would eventually reign as Ptolemy VI.
While Alexander was negotiating the marriage of his sister to his western neighbor, he also found himself a bride, marrying a Maurya princess, Charumati, though the histories are conflicted as to which Maurya Emperor was her father. Alexander took great pride in the fact that he could trace his ancestry to two of history’s greatest conquerors. More importantly to the rest of Bactria, this marriage helped to facilitate further trade between India and Bactria - and thus, the rest of the Hellenistic world. Alexander would also command his armies in battle in the Indus and Gangetic plains as an ally to the Maurya Emperors, four of whom would reign as his contemporaries. The Maurya Empire was entering a period of gradual decline, and their alliance with the powerful military that Alexander commanded did enable the Maurya Emperors to win back many cities that had slipped from their grasp.
Alexander did not campaign in India solely to build good will among a faltering but powerful empire, but also to learn more of the ways of that vast rich land and follow his father’s general principle of combining the strengths of as many different peoples as he could. To that end, he studied India methods of warfare as well as Indian philosophy, science, and religion, while inviting many Indian scholars to his capital at Bactra. Though the history of philosophy owes him a debt for fostering closer ties between two disparate philosophical traditions, Alexander found one military innovation much more interesting: the toe stirrup. Though useful for the barefoot cavalry of the hot subcontinent, the Bactrians saw further potential if the device were adapted for more mild climes.
Historians debate just how crucial the stirrup was to warfare, and whether it improved the fighting ability of an individual cavalryman. One thing is certain, that it made the training of cavalry much easier, thus allowing generals to field larger cavalry armies and train them quicker. As adapted by Alexander’s Bactrians, the stirrup was possibly a flat platform open to the outside, though it is also possible that a leather strap enclosed the foot. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that, under Alexander, the Bactrian cavalry began incorporating the new technology en masse and it enabled him to make the army much more flexible. First, he was able to increase the proportion of cavalry in any given campaign. Second, he was able to require his infantry to spend some time training as cavalry, allowing him to make even more use of his men and horses, as available. In many battles, Alexander could draw on reserves from among his infantry, mounting spare horses to unexpectedly attack the enemy.
As Alexander honed his abilities, he began to campaign to the north of Bactria, conquering all the lands between the Caspian and Aral seas And securing more steppe regions for Bactria. This largely involved scoring victories over the steppe peoples and then negotiating various alliances with these populations and folding large numbers of their own cavalry into his army. With each victory, he established Greco-Bactrian colonies in whatever settlements existed, to further secure the allegiance of these regions. Alexander wished to further push his control to the northeast, into the Tarim basin, but events in India would pull his attention southward.
In 187 BC, the last Maurya Emperor was deposed in a coup by one of his generals, Brahmamitra Shunga, establishing the Shunga dynasty out of Pataliputra. Alexander and the Bactrians had good relations with many Maurya vassals and cities, and his queen was a devout Buddhist herself. So, when the new Shunga Emperor began to take steps to curb the influence of Buddhism in his new realm, Alexander seized the opportunity to invade the Indian subcontinent and claim many of the riches of the lands of the Indus for Bactria.
The potent combination of steppe horse archers, the Macedonian phalanx, and Greek siegecraft enabled Alexander to sweep through the Indus like a lightning bolt, coming down from the mountains to seize city after city. Many did not just surrender without a fight but actively invited Alexander’s armies into their walls. Alexander and queen Charumati would conduct many lavish parades to win over the hearts of those cities and rulers that embraced the invasion (or, to read Bactrian accounts, liberation). The Shungas were not without their own might, and though Alexander had reached as far as Mathura by 183 BC, he did not go any further east. Accounts differ as to whether Alexander wanted to conquer the Gangetic plain, the core of the new Shunga empire, and was dissuaded from doing so by the size of the Shunga armies, or whether he did not want to over-extend his own conquests. The most cynical interpretation is somewhere in between, that Alexander simply did not want to risk tarnishing his record of being undefeated in battle, even if his army was up to the task.
Whatever the case may be, the two realms skirmished for several years, before a formal peace was established between Alexander and Brahmamitra, with both acknowledging the other as equal Emperors - though Alexander used the formulation of King of Kings himself. Though Alexander was no Buddhist himself - as a typical Hellenistic ruler, he indulged in many local cults and spent more time engaging in the philosphical flourishing of the Hellenistic world - he was seen as a patron of the Buddhists of the Indus valley, and many who still lived under the Shungas came to live under his rule. Alexander encouraged many Buddhist artisans to settle across his empire and they brought their faith with them. Though they would mostly fade into the general cosmopolitan cities of the more settled regions, such as Persia, these Buddhists did leave quite a cultural mark upon the steppe.
Alexander’s next opportunity for expansion came when, far to the east of his empire, a great convulsion among the steppe nations took place. In the east, the steppe had been ruled by a great Kushan (Yuezhi) tribal confederation, which had maintained friendly relations with the peoples of China. However, in 178 BC, they were resoundingly defeated by the Huns (Xiongnu) who supplanted them as the pre-eminent steppe confederation of the east. As such steppe revolutions tended to do, this resulted in a great flight of the defeated peoples away from their conquerors, and this meant that the Kushans began to stream directly into the Tarim basin, pushing the nomadic Saka people into Bactrian territory. Alexander‘s policy regarding the new arrivals was to offer them refuge in return to military service, or face his battle-proven army. Initially, most of the steppe warriors were willing to test the mettle of the Bactrians, but after a string of modest victories by Alexander, and one battle in which he utterly destroyed the invading army, most accepted his offer.
The Saka, as an Iranian people, were relatively easily folded into Alexander’s army, which was almost half Iranian, particularly the cavalry. With the Saka allied to him, Alexander now had an excellent pretext to invade the Tarim basin, which he did in 174 BC. The region was already being fought over as the Kushans were still establishing themselves in the region, fighting the remaining Saka while also fending off further attacks from the Huns. All the while, the people of the oasis cities had to try to side with whomever looked strongest in the moment. This unstable realm proved fertile ground for the organized armies of Alexander, and he again treated generously with the cities as he had in India. His own cavalry armies proved to be quite up to the task of securing the surrounding areas of any city that opened their gates to him, and this enabled Alexander to maintain steady lines of communication and supply for his army, which would otherwise have been too large for the region to support. By fielding such a large army, Alexander could thus simply outnumber any opposing army, be it Kushan or Hun.
Just as Alexander used diplomacy to win over the cities, he also used it to negotiate with the Huns, who were the further threat. He reasoned that the Huns would prefer to defeat the Kushans with Bactrian support, rather than fight both peoples. This diplomatic overture paid great dividends, as Alexander could pick off whichever Kushans opposed his conquest of the region, while offering generous terms to those that accepted his suzerainty, which most did. Within two years, the entirety of the Tarim basin was under Bactrian rule, and Alexander could take great pride in having conquered further to the east than his namesake ever had. The conquest also enabled Alexander to open up formal relations with the empire that now bordered his lands, China.
At this time, the Han ruled over China under the benevolent and wise ruler, Emperor Wen. Though the Chinese army was quite formidable, they were far more concerned with the Huns to their north, who had defeated the traditional Han allies, the Kushans. Bactria was a mighty empire, but it was in no position to invade a united and prosperous China. Alexander was also quite content to rest on his laurels after decades of intermittent war, and so envoys were exchanged and trade was opened between Bactria and China. In particular, the Chinese were quite fond of the Bactrian horses, which fetched astounding prices. In the opposite direction, Chinese silk and iron were prized. This blossoming of trade further stabilized Alexander’s rule, as both steppe peoples and city dwellers prospered from the exchanges.
Alexander himself would live until 168 BC, having ruled for over three decades, earning himself the sobriquet of Aniketos (Invincible). Though he was undefeated in battle and his campaigns took him from western Persia to the headwaters of the Ganges to the borders of China, Alexander actually spent most of his reign in non-military pursuits, building alliances with his neighbors, fostering trade between the disparate regions of his empire, and encouraging large scale settlement in the many cosmopolitan Bactrian cities. In any city of size, Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit could be heard spoken, alongside any number of local languages. Greek was the official language of court and coinage, but Alexander was fluent in all three of the major languages of his empire and expected his officials and courtiers to be at least conversant in the three.
When Alexander died, he would pass the throne to his second eldest son, Menander, after the eldest, Philip, had predeceased Alexander in 171 BC, and his own son, also an Alexander, was under 5 years of age. Menander himself was a devotee of Buddhism, and would do much to facilitate its spread across Bactria and neighboring lands.
Afterword
In keeping with the general economic focus of this timeline, the main areas that should interest us are the diffusion of the stirrup earlier, the opening of the Silk Road earlier, and the general melting pot of cultures provided by Bactria. In particular, I’m quite eager to get Greek and Indian mathematicians working together, so that we can get various developments in that field earlier than historically. Also, please note that I am using Kushan as a term for all of the Yuezhi out of convenience. I wanted to call them Tocharians, but that would be an anachronistic term to use for them, and everything else that would be reasonable for Greeks to call them was too obscure. Similarly, while the debate about the Xiongnu and Huns is far from settled, it is a useful enough term for a Greco-Roman perspective (though I suppose if I really wanted to engage in this conceit, I should refer to them as Ounnoi).
PS, remind me to add some maps and artwork when I get back to my computer.
When Demetrius, king of Bactria, died in 201 BC, his young son, Alexander, ascended to the throne. The succession was fairly orderly, and only involved the elimination of a small cadre of courtiers and officers that presented a potential threat to his ascension. Alexander was relatively untested at the time, and the first to challenge the new king were the Parthians. The burgeoning empire in Persia, built off the collapsing remains of the Seleucid dynasty, knew that the conquests of Demetrius had jeopardized their own aspirations and they saw the potential to destabilize the Bactrians and secure eastern Persia under their own rule.
Alexander, however, proved to be up to the challenge presented by his neighbors to the west, and met the Parthian challenge head on. Though Alexander was not the brilliant commander that Alexander the Great - his claimed ancestor - clearly had been, he was able to secure a series of modest victories against Arsaces II as the Parthians were first pushed out of Bactrian territory, and then into Parthian territory. Though none of these battles were decisive on the battlefield themselves, Alexander secured the ultimate political coup when his forces captured Arsaces after their final battle. The Parthian army had continually eluded the young king’s attempts to destroy them, but capturing their own king enabled Alexander to grant clemency in return for fealty. The two kings were almost kin, with both men representing the syncretization of the nomadic Dahae people, Alexander being half Greek and half Pissuri, and Arsaces being a relatively Persianized Parni. With the vassalage of the Parthian Kingdom, Alexander nominally now ruled all of Persia east of Mesopotamia, a vast realm in its own right.
He did not, however, wish to wage war against the Ptolemaic client, the rump Seleucid state in Mesopotamia and considered Egypt too strong a foe at this juncture to challenge. Though the allure of conquering the rest of Alexander the Great‘s Empire in the opposite direction had some poetic appeal, this new Alexander saw fit to expand in other directions. To this end, he opened up relations with Ptolemy V Epiphanes and negotiated a formal peace treaty that was concluded by the marriage of Ptolemy to Alexander’s sister, Olympias in 198 BC. This dynastic tie was particularly important to Alexander because it was a tacit admission by the Ptolemaic dynasty that the pretensions of he and his father to be direct descendants of Alexander the Great were, in fact, true. Those claims would eventually be embraced more explicitly by Ptolemy’s son, who would eventually reign as Ptolemy VI.
While Alexander was negotiating the marriage of his sister to his western neighbor, he also found himself a bride, marrying a Maurya princess, Charumati, though the histories are conflicted as to which Maurya Emperor was her father. Alexander took great pride in the fact that he could trace his ancestry to two of history’s greatest conquerors. More importantly to the rest of Bactria, this marriage helped to facilitate further trade between India and Bactria - and thus, the rest of the Hellenistic world. Alexander would also command his armies in battle in the Indus and Gangetic plains as an ally to the Maurya Emperors, four of whom would reign as his contemporaries. The Maurya Empire was entering a period of gradual decline, and their alliance with the powerful military that Alexander commanded did enable the Maurya Emperors to win back many cities that had slipped from their grasp.
Alexander did not campaign in India solely to build good will among a faltering but powerful empire, but also to learn more of the ways of that vast rich land and follow his father’s general principle of combining the strengths of as many different peoples as he could. To that end, he studied India methods of warfare as well as Indian philosophy, science, and religion, while inviting many Indian scholars to his capital at Bactra. Though the history of philosophy owes him a debt for fostering closer ties between two disparate philosophical traditions, Alexander found one military innovation much more interesting: the toe stirrup. Though useful for the barefoot cavalry of the hot subcontinent, the Bactrians saw further potential if the device were adapted for more mild climes.
Historians debate just how crucial the stirrup was to warfare, and whether it improved the fighting ability of an individual cavalryman. One thing is certain, that it made the training of cavalry much easier, thus allowing generals to field larger cavalry armies and train them quicker. As adapted by Alexander’s Bactrians, the stirrup was possibly a flat platform open to the outside, though it is also possible that a leather strap enclosed the foot. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that, under Alexander, the Bactrian cavalry began incorporating the new technology en masse and it enabled him to make the army much more flexible. First, he was able to increase the proportion of cavalry in any given campaign. Second, he was able to require his infantry to spend some time training as cavalry, allowing him to make even more use of his men and horses, as available. In many battles, Alexander could draw on reserves from among his infantry, mounting spare horses to unexpectedly attack the enemy.
As Alexander honed his abilities, he began to campaign to the north of Bactria, conquering all the lands between the Caspian and Aral seas And securing more steppe regions for Bactria. This largely involved scoring victories over the steppe peoples and then negotiating various alliances with these populations and folding large numbers of their own cavalry into his army. With each victory, he established Greco-Bactrian colonies in whatever settlements existed, to further secure the allegiance of these regions. Alexander wished to further push his control to the northeast, into the Tarim basin, but events in India would pull his attention southward.
In 187 BC, the last Maurya Emperor was deposed in a coup by one of his generals, Brahmamitra Shunga, establishing the Shunga dynasty out of Pataliputra. Alexander and the Bactrians had good relations with many Maurya vassals and cities, and his queen was a devout Buddhist herself. So, when the new Shunga Emperor began to take steps to curb the influence of Buddhism in his new realm, Alexander seized the opportunity to invade the Indian subcontinent and claim many of the riches of the lands of the Indus for Bactria.
The potent combination of steppe horse archers, the Macedonian phalanx, and Greek siegecraft enabled Alexander to sweep through the Indus like a lightning bolt, coming down from the mountains to seize city after city. Many did not just surrender without a fight but actively invited Alexander’s armies into their walls. Alexander and queen Charumati would conduct many lavish parades to win over the hearts of those cities and rulers that embraced the invasion (or, to read Bactrian accounts, liberation). The Shungas were not without their own might, and though Alexander had reached as far as Mathura by 183 BC, he did not go any further east. Accounts differ as to whether Alexander wanted to conquer the Gangetic plain, the core of the new Shunga empire, and was dissuaded from doing so by the size of the Shunga armies, or whether he did not want to over-extend his own conquests. The most cynical interpretation is somewhere in between, that Alexander simply did not want to risk tarnishing his record of being undefeated in battle, even if his army was up to the task.
Whatever the case may be, the two realms skirmished for several years, before a formal peace was established between Alexander and Brahmamitra, with both acknowledging the other as equal Emperors - though Alexander used the formulation of King of Kings himself. Though Alexander was no Buddhist himself - as a typical Hellenistic ruler, he indulged in many local cults and spent more time engaging in the philosphical flourishing of the Hellenistic world - he was seen as a patron of the Buddhists of the Indus valley, and many who still lived under the Shungas came to live under his rule. Alexander encouraged many Buddhist artisans to settle across his empire and they brought their faith with them. Though they would mostly fade into the general cosmopolitan cities of the more settled regions, such as Persia, these Buddhists did leave quite a cultural mark upon the steppe.
Alexander’s next opportunity for expansion came when, far to the east of his empire, a great convulsion among the steppe nations took place. In the east, the steppe had been ruled by a great Kushan (Yuezhi) tribal confederation, which had maintained friendly relations with the peoples of China. However, in 178 BC, they were resoundingly defeated by the Huns (Xiongnu) who supplanted them as the pre-eminent steppe confederation of the east. As such steppe revolutions tended to do, this resulted in a great flight of the defeated peoples away from their conquerors, and this meant that the Kushans began to stream directly into the Tarim basin, pushing the nomadic Saka people into Bactrian territory. Alexander‘s policy regarding the new arrivals was to offer them refuge in return to military service, or face his battle-proven army. Initially, most of the steppe warriors were willing to test the mettle of the Bactrians, but after a string of modest victories by Alexander, and one battle in which he utterly destroyed the invading army, most accepted his offer.
The Saka, as an Iranian people, were relatively easily folded into Alexander’s army, which was almost half Iranian, particularly the cavalry. With the Saka allied to him, Alexander now had an excellent pretext to invade the Tarim basin, which he did in 174 BC. The region was already being fought over as the Kushans were still establishing themselves in the region, fighting the remaining Saka while also fending off further attacks from the Huns. All the while, the people of the oasis cities had to try to side with whomever looked strongest in the moment. This unstable realm proved fertile ground for the organized armies of Alexander, and he again treated generously with the cities as he had in India. His own cavalry armies proved to be quite up to the task of securing the surrounding areas of any city that opened their gates to him, and this enabled Alexander to maintain steady lines of communication and supply for his army, which would otherwise have been too large for the region to support. By fielding such a large army, Alexander could thus simply outnumber any opposing army, be it Kushan or Hun.
Just as Alexander used diplomacy to win over the cities, he also used it to negotiate with the Huns, who were the further threat. He reasoned that the Huns would prefer to defeat the Kushans with Bactrian support, rather than fight both peoples. This diplomatic overture paid great dividends, as Alexander could pick off whichever Kushans opposed his conquest of the region, while offering generous terms to those that accepted his suzerainty, which most did. Within two years, the entirety of the Tarim basin was under Bactrian rule, and Alexander could take great pride in having conquered further to the east than his namesake ever had. The conquest also enabled Alexander to open up formal relations with the empire that now bordered his lands, China.
At this time, the Han ruled over China under the benevolent and wise ruler, Emperor Wen. Though the Chinese army was quite formidable, they were far more concerned with the Huns to their north, who had defeated the traditional Han allies, the Kushans. Bactria was a mighty empire, but it was in no position to invade a united and prosperous China. Alexander was also quite content to rest on his laurels after decades of intermittent war, and so envoys were exchanged and trade was opened between Bactria and China. In particular, the Chinese were quite fond of the Bactrian horses, which fetched astounding prices. In the opposite direction, Chinese silk and iron were prized. This blossoming of trade further stabilized Alexander’s rule, as both steppe peoples and city dwellers prospered from the exchanges.
Alexander himself would live until 168 BC, having ruled for over three decades, earning himself the sobriquet of Aniketos (Invincible). Though he was undefeated in battle and his campaigns took him from western Persia to the headwaters of the Ganges to the borders of China, Alexander actually spent most of his reign in non-military pursuits, building alliances with his neighbors, fostering trade between the disparate regions of his empire, and encouraging large scale settlement in the many cosmopolitan Bactrian cities. In any city of size, Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit could be heard spoken, alongside any number of local languages. Greek was the official language of court and coinage, but Alexander was fluent in all three of the major languages of his empire and expected his officials and courtiers to be at least conversant in the three.
When Alexander died, he would pass the throne to his second eldest son, Menander, after the eldest, Philip, had predeceased Alexander in 171 BC, and his own son, also an Alexander, was under 5 years of age. Menander himself was a devotee of Buddhism, and would do much to facilitate its spread across Bactria and neighboring lands.
Afterword
In keeping with the general economic focus of this timeline, the main areas that should interest us are the diffusion of the stirrup earlier, the opening of the Silk Road earlier, and the general melting pot of cultures provided by Bactria. In particular, I’m quite eager to get Greek and Indian mathematicians working together, so that we can get various developments in that field earlier than historically. Also, please note that I am using Kushan as a term for all of the Yuezhi out of convenience. I wanted to call them Tocharians, but that would be an anachronistic term to use for them, and everything else that would be reasonable for Greeks to call them was too obscure. Similarly, while the debate about the Xiongnu and Huns is far from settled, it is a useful enough term for a Greco-Roman perspective (though I suppose if I really wanted to engage in this conceit, I should refer to them as Ounnoi).
PS, remind me to add some maps and artwork when I get back to my computer.
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I love the idea of a earlier melting pot the mathematics and numerals will be interesting because the concept of zero opens more economic and technological opportunities. Also the stirrup allows for cavalry in armies that has some interesting implications if we have something like the crisis of the third century.
You mean the workers uprising in the steel mills of Roman Britain?
This timeline features quicker technological and economic developments, and an enduring Roman Republic. Meaning that the third century will be utterly unrecognizable.
Just because Rome is Republic doesn't mean it won't have it's issues that cause something like the crisis of the third century and we might still have the huns come a knocking and other migrations unless you have plans there.
Just caught up with this and the butterflies are quite interesting. With sirrups making horse riding an easier skill to learn, does this mean some armies might start adopting medieval style mounted infantry army (fight on foot, "march" on horseback). Will butterflies down see an earlier development/expansion of Byzantium? Or should that be Byzantion?
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