From Alternative History

F feel moved to tell you that Rome: Total War was kind of lying to you -- but don't let that stop you NINJA EDIT Looks like someone already got to it. Whatever, it's a cool althist anyway. Atinoda 23:30, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

what does NINJA EDIT mean? --C II R 02:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I love maps, but a lot of yours are too small for me. If possible, try to create larger ones in the future. (Even if they're not large on the page, at least I could click to make them larger.) Anyway, keep up the timeline. --Riction 09:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Unfourtunatly I don't know how to put in pictures larger than 153 600 bytes, even if its a thumbnail. --C II R 20:50, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Rome Total War lied to you.

• Shoot --C II R 16:05, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

I like the "Life of Brian" reference, but come on - using v for u and i for j is just pretentious. It doesn't make the text seem more "realistic" - it just makes it harder to read. --Michael riber 16:34, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

• Well I am sorry, I just did it because it makes some words look neat. I didn't mean it to be marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction; intended to impress others; Demanding of skill or daring; or to be or all that more realistic.

Harder to read... very likely. Putting the words in brackets would be very redundant (and/or silly) and probably would make reading just as jerky wouldn't it. --C II R 13:02, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar in headline

Latin ab has not the same meaning as English of, but from or better from sth. away, off, since. Correctly the title should be "Ætas Briani" (-i for Genitive). --84.58.119.106 16:38, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not exactly sure what the title of this timeline is supposed to mean (although the "aetas" I looked up means "lifetime", "age", or "generation"), but "Monty Python's Life of Brian", not very much related in terms of story to this althist, when looked up on Wikipedia and "Latina" selected as a language, gives "Vita Briani". What do you intend to convey with the title? (I wonder if your current title could still mean "The age/generation since Brian"?) --Riction 07:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It was just supposed to be humourous, I mean, why would Carico call him Brian for any reason? It was intended to be a wink wink nudge nudge about 'Life of Brian' but only because I laughed at the thought and also for Jeff Brian's identity to be more obvious (because when I gave the initial story to my friends, they hadn't a clue it was Jesus-AT ALL). I also don't know Latin grammar at all and was just trying what looked least wrong. --C II R 01:51, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This timeline is fantastic!

So detailed! So cool! But one thing I must know - the history is up to the 15th century, and they've got freakin' moon colonies. Where are they by the 21st century? They'll be in another freakin' galaxy, surely! Tell us! I must know! 203.129.39.87 05:44, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Whow, how did I miss this comment? Sorry I've taken so long...

Thank you for the compliment, and about the future...hmmm...

I don't EXACTLY know where this is all going, but by the 1520's they are supposed to start discovering other dimension/timelines. Then about 50 years after that they begin realising that contrary to theoretically 'concrete' laws of time, SOMETHING weird happened around 740 AUC regarding time travel.

about space specifically, once the Ice Age gets started and the Mars and Moon colonies become self sustaining, they begin leading technological advancements for Humans, then Earth gets back on its feet and tries to start setting up colonies again. Even though there's plenty of room, the 'aboriginals' get upset.

This timeline was greatly inspired by many things in case you were wondering.--TEAKAY 21:05, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Including Monty Python's "Life of Brian"? :) Rickyrab 02:21, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that was the second inspiration ;)--TEAKAY 15:19, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

I presume there was a first. :3 Rickyrab 23:49, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

A DREAM!! :D --TEAKAY 00:10, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] POD

This is very clever! What is the main point of divergence for this timeline? It seems to be some time before the narrative begins, since the Ptolemaic kingdom is still around in the year 1 (or so). The whole Alexandrian Library thing is another POD, a really cool one if you ask me. Is the air travel presumed to be some lost knowledge from the Library? Is that how they have flight in the first century? Benkarnell 04:43, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

That sounds cooler than the actual POD, which is that ~30BCE an Egyptian historian appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt and an Italian military engineer appeared in Rome. The historian was able to get into a influencial position before the engineer but the engineer eventually caught up. Also, where the historian avoided giving Ptolemies advance technological notice (because he was unsure of how positive an impact it would bring), the engineer right away began working on a locomotive, demonstrating it to the Senate, and also introducing theory of flight, because he saw it as the most expedient way to get in charge.

What was in that Library exactly that makes it so special someone may ask? ...I don't know, and haven't figured out really what would be best to say was there, but it could be that it just had some knowledge in a few general fields that were ahead of its time and also some lost history.

Moving the Alexandrian Library to Venice was another thing I thought was neat.

Yeah I know, time travel PODs make most TL less interesting because it takes away from the chance potentials... :(

...although... I guess I could say that the engineer was a native born genious and the historian was just different choices made by the Egyptians. And that the engineer had been inspired for his steamwheel and aircraft by rudementary ideas and theories he found at the Library when he was young, which he would later move to Venice for it to become Super Learning Central; inspiration for philosophers and Caesar Antonius Pius for his creating the Antonius Research Academies... :D

ohh, wait, what about Carico calling his adopted son Jeff Brian? That part is crazy...:(

Ugh, maybe a soothsayer told him to name him that... because the soothsayer totally saw the future of film and television ^^;;... and also his having a copy of Ætas ab Brian translated into Italian... I guess I can just cut that part out, it's minor.

Of course, that makes some of the history projected in the above section no longer accurate, but if this new POD is logical enough, it all works out. :)--TEAKAY 11:58, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I hadn't even considered time travel-- I'm not exactly an althist veteran and am not familiar with all the variations. So this is a lot like "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"-- smart future person shows up and changes everything. No need to change that! Honestly I don't think that all those sudden advances in technology would be very possible without introducing modern people.

I wouldn't change Jeff Brian-- that joke's kind of a key to deciphering the whole story. You can justify it, I think, by the fact that people sometimes do eccentric things, and amusing coincidences sometimes happen.

But if you like the Library idea... suppose the POD was that Leonardo da Vinci (or some similar person) had been born in Alexandria around 200 BC, that his sketches and designs were more plausible than in real life, and that when they were brought to Rome, the military brass immediately tried to make these strange devices. Maybe not any better than the time travel. Just an idea. Benkarnell 14:16, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

The da Vinci idea sounds real neat, I usually like as few PODs as possible but if just a bunch of his sketches show up in the library that could work good.

I guess the technology explosion is too hard without modern people, but I still like that idea about Carico getting inspiration from 'lost' knowledge in the Library-whether he's from the future or not... Since most of the real POD hasn't been actually explained (and that's a bad habit) it's still pretty open to possibilities...--TEAKAY 18:12, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

That could be pretty neat. What accounts for the continued existence of Ptolemaic Egypt? (Real life Egypt was conquered in 30 BC, but in this timeline it lasted until the birth of Christ.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benkarnell (talk) 14:57, 2008 May 20 (UTC)

That may require that the historian still gets transported to Egypt, and that my originally sending him there for 30 BCE is terribly late, since around ATL 30BCE Rome is fighting the Ptolemies over control of Greece. Otherwise the only way to say they survived and expanded that long is to have previous Ptolemy pharaohs make different decisions that resulted in it.

So for possible PODs one is a trend of Ptolemies making better decisions and being luckier, and another being Carico, still likely from the future, arriving around 30 or 20 BCE to give him time to rise up and propagate flying machines, the compass, and most crucially trains, so that by 1 he is a top general with a lot of pull with Augustus... and hopefully there being no Cleopatra or a different Cleopatra doesn't mess up Augustus' rise too much. Oh boy, THATS going to take some solidifying too.--TEAKAY 03:52, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Yikes. Maybe it's best to just leave it vague, and say that the POD involves a slightly stronger Ptolemaic state and the sudden appearance of industrial technology. Benkarnell 16:11, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

For now at least. :] --TEAKAY 18:21, 21 May 2008 (UTC)