What if the Roman Empire Never Fell?

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cowscows
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03 Oct 2012, 10:13 am

I have always wondered what if the Roman Empire never fell.

Would they have discovered America or Australia?

Vatnos
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03 Oct 2012, 10:14 am

It really didn't fall. It just became the church.

MONKEY
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03 Oct 2012, 11:53 am

It never really left, much of western culture still has strong Roman influence. Especially language and food crops, various plants that are grown in Britain for example are ancient Roman imports.

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MakaylaTheAspie
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03 Oct 2012, 11:55 am

It never really fell, it just kind of faded off and became other things.

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Fnord
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03 Oct 2012, 12:11 pm

cowscows wrote:

I have always wondered what if the Roman Empire never fell.

Would they have discovered America or Australia?

Do you mean Nova Roma and Terra Botanicae?

Cultus_Diabolus
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03 Oct 2012, 12:28 pm

its lasted in tell about 1453 in the form of Byzantium.

and its influence in our culture is still strong today.

probably a good thing it fell. stagnation and the lack of tech growth started with the roman empire not after it collapse in the west.

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CockneyRebel
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03 Oct 2012, 2:28 pm

It never really fell. It morphed into a variety of different things.

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Sylkat
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03 Oct 2012, 5:00 pm

We would be obligated to worship many gods, animal sacrifice would probably still be required.
Slavery would never have been ended, and Nazism would have never existed, because the area of Germany would still be part of Rome.
The architecture worldwide would be beautiful, lots of pillars and white marble, no hideous Modern Architecture, and probably no Modern Art.
Probably the open air theaters in every city would continue to present public executions.

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Cultus_Diabolus
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03 Oct 2012, 5:55 pm

Sylkat wrote:

lol you so funny, they use to paint that white marble. it was so tacky it would make a modern gay fashion designer cry. there no paint cause paint wears off in time ;p

p.s. im not sure why this sliped my mind but... they converted to Christianity before the west fell, and i imagine the theaters would give way to movies and inclosed theaters cause it rains ;p

also we would probably be a lot less technologically advance, being the stagnation of progress started before the collapse of the empire.

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Last edited by Cultus_Diabolus on 06 Oct 2012, 7:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Fnord
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03 Oct 2012, 6:14 pm

I've read Roma Eterna, and I liked it. "Roma Eterna" is a 2003 novel by Robert Silverberg which presents an alternate history in which the Roman Empire survives to the present day.

Quote:

The point of divergence is the failure of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt. Moses and many of the Israelites drowned, and the remnant -- led by Aaron -- were fetched back to slavery in Egypt, a traumatic event recorded for posterity in the Book of Aaron, an alternate version of the Bible. Later on, the Hebrews were freed from bondage, and remained a distinct religious-ethnic minority in Egypt, practicing a monotheistic religion, up to the equivalent of our 20th Century (27th Century of the Roman Calendar)...

Plot summary

The novel is presented as a series of vignettes over a period of about 1500 years, from 1282 ab urbe condita (AD 529) to 2723 AUC (AD 1970). Most of the story-chapters involve Roman politics, either the competition between the Western and Eastern Empires to dominate the other or the violent creation of the Second Roman Republic in about 2603 AUC (AD 1850). Others describe the first Roman circumnavigation of the world and unsuccessful attempts to conquer Nova Roma (North America).

Many features of our own history are repeated in this history, though under changed circumstances: The equivalent of the 16th and 17th Centuries have bold navigators and adventurers, romanticized by later generations but unpleasantly brutal and ruthless when looked at closely; in the late 18th to mid-19th Centuries, a decadent old order is overthrown by revolution followed by a reign of terror and the reemergence of Republicanism; though Italy remains a central part of the Roman Empire, the Latin dialect spoken there develops into a kind of Italian, and the name "Marcus" changes into "Marco"; though Vienna is a provincial capital which never had an Emperor of its own, its population dances the Waltz; by the 20th Century, people travel by cars rather than carriages and by the second half of the century, space flight is achieved.

It concludes with the first story to be written, when a group of Hebrew citizens in Alexandria prepare to depart Earth in a rocket which explodes shortly after takeoff. But they will try again, still believing God chose them to inherit the Promised Land, just not on Rome-dominated Earth...

Title: Roma Eterna
Author(s): Robert Silverberg
Language: English
Genre(s): Alternate history
Publisher: Roc Books
Publication date: 2003
Media type: Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0-380-97859-8

Sylkat
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04 Oct 2012, 2:52 pm

Dear Fnord, Did you know that Robert Silverberg has written under twenty-eight different names?
So saith ISFDB.

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Fnord
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04 Oct 2012, 3:02 pm

Sylkat wrote:

Dear Fnord, Did you know that Robert Silverberg has written under twenty-eight different names?
So saith ISFDB.

Sylkat

29, but who needs to count them? He's a fine writer.

naturalplastic
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04 Oct 2012, 6:26 pm

Rome did fall- but it was only the western half the empire. The eastern half became the Byzantine empire which survived until 1453.

Had charlimagne kept it together in the west with his frankish empire and then reunited it with the byzantine empire into a revived roman empire its hard to say what wouldve happened.

The opposite end of the eurasian landmass became a united empire about the same time as the rise of rome: China.

So europe likely wouldve been like china- more civilized in the early centuries of what was middle ages but ultimately stagnant and less advanced in the post 1500 AD era than it was.