What if Julius Caesar was slain by Pirates?

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article here

 

[I Saw A Red Sky]

I like this, it is some classic fun Turtledove stuff you do not see much anymore sadly.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Bloody hell, that's an impressive glimpse of a real-feeling timeline. (Rome borrowing Chinese gods, love it)

 

[Thande]

This is a good example of the sort of POD that everyone acts as though it's overdone, but actually it's quite hard to find any speculation on (especially in recent years).

 

[Gary Oswald]

Bloody hell, that's an impressive glimpse of a real-feeling timeline. (Rome borrowing Chinese gods, love it)

I really like the narrow focus of it, which feels weird to say about an article which covers hundreds of years but it would be easy to get lost in the weeds of what does gaul and britannia look like without Caesar's conquest, what does this do the democratic institutions of rome etc.

But instead Jeff is just like what does this do to Crassus if he doesn't have the drive to match the conquests of the other triumvirate members and that's the story.

 

[RyanF]

I really like the narrow focus of it, which feels weird to say about an article which covers hundreds of years but it would be easy to get lost in the weeds of what does gaul and britannia look like without Caesar's conquest, what does this do the democratic institutions of rome etc.

But instead Jeff is just like what does this do to Crassus if he doesn't have the drive to match the conquests of the other triumvirate members and that's the story.

Seconded.

And also to add that the final stinger of the Romans gaining compasses is a great way to end. Almost "Oh yeah, that overdone thing where they discover the New World? Maybe that."

 

[LSCatilina]

I'm going to controversially agree with everyone there and say that what could arguably lost in complexity, details and "but what about this obvious change" was gained by a smooth, focused and interesting narrative.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

I'll join the chorus and say that I enjoyed this short speculation. What really caught my attention was the phrase 'a tradition of Roman expansion by trade' which implies a huge amount (less military expansion without Caesar's Gallic wars, etc, etc) without actually saying so.

 

[Geordie]

I have nothing specific to add to that which has been said better by other posters, but this was very good.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Great article.
BTW, in Criminal Case, a game I once followed until it ended on January 2021, in the first case of Travel in Time, Julius Caesar is the victim. Yuya, https://criminalcasegame.fandom.com/wiki/Yuya,
is a suspect and in the second talk with him, it's revealed that, in universe, he was one of the pirates that had kidnapped Caesar and was afraid of Caesar finding him.