Original Map by u/--Faris-- on Reddit
How would this Effect Religion in Rome and Persia? How different would the Gospels be ITTL? How does effect religion and cultures in Armenia and Ethiopia, the oldest states to adopt Christianity? How different would Christianity be?
WI Persia reclaimed it's Western domains from Rome before Jesus' Birth?
- Thread starter Oba Cahokia
- Start date
they'd be butterflied away, becuase jesus was specifically relevant to the people of judea because of roman persecution. that said, there was a lot of religous syncretizations between rome and persia otl before the romans converted (sol Invictus, Mithras,) so there could still be an upheaval in rome
The Year is 500 AD on that map but all I know is it's under Parthia at the beginning of this timeline.
I think a better timeline would be if the Persians conquered it soon after Jesus’s death and the birth of Christianity (so late 1st century), as that would prevent the Butterfly effect.
I do think however that Hellenic polytheism wouldn’t be the major religion across the entire Roman Empire. Christianity was the majority in Iraq and the Caucasus despite them being Sassanid (who were much less tolerant of religions than the Parthians) IOTL, so there would be no reason it still wouldn’t have a large following in the Roman Empire. Besides that, there were many monotheistic religions like Mithraism and Manichaeism that were spreading quickly (the former especially among the military) before the Christian Emperors stamped them out.
I do think however that Hellenic polytheism wouldn’t be the major religion across the entire Roman Empire. Christianity was the majority in Iraq and the Caucasus despite them being Sassanid (who were much less tolerant of religions than the Parthians) IOTL, so there would be no reason it still wouldn’t have a large following in the Roman Empire. Besides that, there were many monotheistic religions like Mithraism and Manichaeism that were spreading quickly (the former especially among the military) before the Christian Emperors stamped them out.
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That didn't make sense for me either ngl. But the OP said he took Artistic Liberties so no reason lol.
That is a great map.
Still, this should probably be a timeline. Too many changes to TTL have to happen to produce this map to speculate in an informed manner.
The most obvious problem is that the Parthian dynasties never attempted to conquer Syria. They don't seem to have presented themselves as heirs of the original Persian empire either. Maybe you could make the Seleucid collapse earlier and worse than it was, but that only gets the Parthians to northern Syria, and Pompey and the other Roman generals are still going to show up and Rome has interests in the region.
The second problem are the butterflies affecting Judaism and the life of Jesus. I just checked the Wikipedia article about Pompey's activities in Judea, found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(63_BC), and all of this could really easily be butterflied into a completely different timeline.
Still, this should probably be a timeline. Too many changes to TTL have to happen to produce this map to speculate in an informed manner.
The most obvious problem is that the Parthian dynasties never attempted to conquer Syria. They don't seem to have presented themselves as heirs of the original Persian empire either. Maybe you could make the Seleucid collapse earlier and worse than it was, but that only gets the Parthians to northern Syria, and Pompey and the other Roman generals are still going to show up and Rome has interests in the region.
The second problem are the butterflies affecting Judaism and the life of Jesus. I just checked the Wikipedia article about Pompey's activities in Judea, found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(63_BC), and all of this could really easily be butterflied into a completely different timeline.
Emperor-of-New-Zealand
Banned
The word 'Islam' just means 'Submission to God' and doesn't have anything specific to do with Mohammed or his propheticness. Any Arab-based religion could be named 'Islam' in an ATL, even some form of Arab Christianity.
Sacer Bubonicus
Banned
Why would Iran convert to Christianity, especially in such massive numbers?
600 years of Nestorian Christian presence didn't lead to that IOTL.
600 years of Nestorian Christian presence didn't lead to that IOTL.