I am in the proccess of writing an alternate history book where Caesar does not die (he heeds spurrina's warnings and lays a trap for the plotters) and therefore Rome does not collapse and continues on for another 2000 years. I require well thought out information predicting the continuation of the timeline. I dont want to make it appear that I will just take all the answers and thought of others and leave everyone hanging. I will be present and contributing to the discussion regularly. Also this WILL be turned into a book I already have a few chapters semi-reading to go and I have recently applied for submition detail from Asimov's science-fiction magazine so I can see how they like it.
So far what I have planed out proceeds as follows:
Caesar conquers dacia and parthia, then goes on to conquer the land east of lebennon and eastern India. However he dies shortly after the last battle from an epelleptic attack and Octavain is named his heir. Octavian who was left running affairs in Dacia and Parthia heads to rome and sets himself up as the next emporer (about 34 b.c.). Antonius is left running india, parthia, and dacia and is content with all the power and wealth he has gained, so he doesn't start a civil war with Octavian. Also roads left from the roman army provide a very good and safe trade route to the spices of india and the silks of china. As a note I think the library of alexandria way burned during the civil war between Octavian and Antonius if so this would not happen.
I need extra information more detailed information on what would happen as well during the same time as above. As well as the following points:
Would Octaivian rename himself Augustus?
Would Tutenburg still happen, and if it does not what are the military implications for Rome with 3 extra legions? As well, would Germania be absorbed into the empire?
With a good trade route to china technologies would be traded such as the crossbow (which im not sure the romans had until later), paper, and the knowledge of sulfer and saltpeter (which the chinese experimented with as far back as the 2nd century B.C.). As a note sulfur and saltpeter would catch fire but would not explode unless mixed with charcoal which was not realized by the chinese until the 8th century A.D.
The Romans were (to my knowledge and for the most part) practical but not theoretical thinkers, while they might not of experimented with sulfur and saltpeter and invented gunpowder before the chinese they most likely would have created some use for it (like guns and cannons) way before the chinese.
What if Rome kept conquering and conquered the rest of India? Alexander the Greats troops were stoped by the monsoons. Would roman legions braved the weather and jungles? Would they have incorperated elephants into the legion? Whould they press on into thailand, vietnam, malaysia, and possibly reach australia? (with boats of course). What if they decided to conquer china? korea? japan? explore the pacific a little and find the philipennes? How you rome deal with Gehngis kahn and the Golden horde?
To deal with the horde rome would probably need to develop new strategies as Gehngis would only fight the legions on his own terms which meant dividing them up, and then you end a with a tutenburg. Also I dought rome would press on past mongolia as then you get into siberia, and they probaly would have treaded it like scottland: nothing worth conquering.
What if rome allied with china rather than conquering it? how would a romo-chinese alliance interact with the world.
Back in Europe would the romans go into scotland and conquer the scotts? or would they build a wall again? Would they conquer ireland? How would they deal with the viking invasion? would it incourage them to go and conquer sacandinavia? After Roman conquers germany (if it does) where next? poland? Eastern Europe? would they be turned back by the Russain cold like so many other conquers?
What of africa? While they would probably leave the safarri, desert, and jungle alone, what (and when) do they do when they discover the the diamonds and gold?
Now to expand their economy a few changes I beleive have to be made: Unifying the western (latin speaking) and eastern (greak speaking) sections of the empire (make them all latin speaking), i also think a good way of doing this is through a cannal system (like they had in england during the industrial revolution). They romans certaintly had the engineering skills.
The government needed to put incentives on trading I belive most of teh gernment's wealth came from taxes, more trading would bring in more income as well as spread ideas.
Slavery also needed to be reduced. Slaves did have protection laws during the last part of the empire, but while this kept the costs of replacing slaves I believe adam smith found that slaves are more expensive to maintain than another paid workforce, in addition this would also bring construction jobs. Romans could not do without slavery altogether but I think it should be limited to frontier lands where there is alot of construction that needs to be done (and sometimes in a hurry).
Also lets say Rome has succsefully conquered All of Europe, most of Asia, some of africa and australia. How would the government control all this? The persian empire had a good system that could deliver a message from one border to the other in 2 to 3 days but this is ridiculous! It would probably take 2 months or more to get a message from Rome to Austrailia. Tax collection would be a pain as well. I think the main problem with Romes expansion lays in the government. After all it was problems with the government that caused it to collapse in the first place.
Ok lets keep going. The vikings found america by hopping from scotland to iceland to greenland to cannada. Romans could use this technique but they would have to change their ships dramatically. They were designed for the relativly calm waters of the mediterranian sea not the north atlantic ocean (indeed Caesar had this problem the first time he went to brittian he didn't know about tides and all his ships were swept away).
What would the romans do when they discovered cannada? how would they interact with the native americans? would they have similar problems as they french and english? would they have developed gunpowder weapons at this point in time? How would the romans interact with the aztecs? they Maya? and the Incans? Once they've conquered the world what do they do?
How does the army adapt to using gunpowder weapons and possibly being on the opposite side of the barrel? will they continue to experiment with gunpowder to make it more powerful and end up with smokeless powder (which wasn't discovered until the 1800s)?
I read an artical in popular mechanics that the parthian had developed a primitive battery (thye didn't have the slightest clue what it was and it was a device to store vinegar i think) is their a chance that the romans would have discovered a use for it at a later date or would they have simply forgoten it and developed a new one when the technology rolled around?
How would roman forts have developed? would the turn into the medieval age fortresses of would they have become smaller when they developed gunpowder weapons because no one could get to the walls before being shot down?
Would the roman legionaries develop trench warfare?
If rome survived their industrial revolution would have most likley occured in the 1200s what happens then?
What happens when they discover the radio? locomotion the automobile, flight? machine guns? space flight? computers? the internet?, the stock exchange? genetic engineering?
These seem to be enough questions for now. Again I dont want to make it appear that I will just take all the answers and thought of others and leave everyone hanging. I will be present and contributing to the discussion regularly. Also this WILL be turned into a book I already have a few chapters semi-reading to go and I have recently applied for submition detail from Asimov's science-fiction magazine so I can see how they like it.
P.S. Please dont ask for copies of the chapters as I'd rather not have pecies of the book floating around in cyberspace. If I ever wish to post a chapter or two here I will let you know.
Thanks