Roma Eterna

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Roma Eterna is a 2003 novel by Robert Silverberg which presents an alternate history in which the Roman Empire survives to the present day. The "point of divergence" is the failure of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, followed more obviously by the later mutual assistance between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires against barbarian invasions. More 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.

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. It concludes, ironically with the first story to be written, when a group of Hebrew citizens in Alexandria preparing 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.