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Termas de Caracalla. Roma

Roma Eterna - Robert Silverberg

Reread: Jun 2022

So I love alternate history works. Well, let me clarify, I love alternate history works that are good and/or hit my particular buttons to what I like. This is one that I love. The whole premise, the divergence point from our own reality, is that the Jews failed to make it out of Egypt. You know like when Moses was suppose to part the Red Sea and all that. Well they didn't make it to the sea and the Pharaoh crushed them and kept them in Egypt. The result being that Christianity never started (Islam is specifically dealt with in one of the stories, although I still feel the conditions would have prevented its formation as well). No Judaism in the Levant means no....yeast starter (to use a baking metaphor) for the following religions to build off of. The primary effect of this for the book is that the Roman Empire didn't die. The lack of internal disruption caused by Christianity let the Empire survive.

Silverberg uses this premise to write an series of short stories that progress through the alternate history of this continuing Roman Empire. They have such a diverse flavour, these stories. From court officials, to soldiers, to children, to academics, to wealthy tourists, the view points are many and they all fill you in on what has been happening and give interesting narrations on what is happening in the story. It's interesting to see the imagined struggles the Empire teeters through as it continues on. The last three stories deal with the eventual fall of the empire and the aftermath. There's a rather dramatic account of the end of Imperial rule which is written quite well. But then, most of the stories are written well.

I don't know if I have a favourite one of the stories. There are some I like less of course, but mostly they are all equal in my affections. I like not to view them so separately but to treat them as a whole. And the story over the course of that whole is very entertaining and interesting.

Info: Eos, 2003

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