Roma Eterna - Plot Introduction

Plot Introduction

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).

Still, affairs of the larger world, the rise and fall of empires and cultures, remained roughly the same as in our history up to division of the Roman Empire (here, never Christianised). At this point mutual assistance between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires against barbarian invasions preserved both from falling and kept Roman rule intact throughout the imperial dominions.

Despite the absence of Christianity, which in our history considerably influenced early Islam, Muhammad did start his prophetic career—but was assassinated by a perceptive Roman agent, nipping Islam in the bud and thus precluding the spread of any Monotheistic religion through the Roman Empire. Monotheism remained limited to the specific Hebrew sect in Egypt.

Properly the novel is considered a fixup, as each of the ten chapters was first published as a short story, six of them in Asimov's Science Fiction, between 1989 and 2003.