History
As with all stories of alternative history this one starts with a single event that changes the course of history resulting in an outcome that is radically different from the history which has resulted in our world. They are essentially What If questions written large.
The premise for my story is set six-hundred years before the story takes place.
In 270AD the emperor Aurelian took the throne of Rome. As one of a number of distinguished soldier emperors he alone would hold the title of 'Restorer of the World'. He successfully defeated a number of rivals for control of the empire and reunited it, expelling a number of barbarian incursions in the process. He commenced the construction of the Aurelian walls around Rome, many parts of which are preserved in good condition and demonstrate the fortress building capabilities of the engineers of the late Roman Empire. He conducted a number of campaigns in the east and brought a fair portion of Asia Minor back under Roman rule. Always known as a stern taskmaster who dealt out vicious punishments for any mistakes or misdemeanours this would, in our world, be the cause of his downfall.
In 275AD on his way to Persia for another campaign one of his scribes make a relatively minor mistake. Fearing for his life he forged a document naming several of the senior officers accompanying Aurelian on his campaign as traitors. These officers expecting no mercy then colluded together and murdered Aurelian. Subsequent emperors would eventually prove powerless to stop the partition and final disillusion of the empire itself although this process would take another one-hundred forty years in the west.
What if the plot had failed? This is my branching point.
In the world of this novel, Aurelian was tipped off about the plot by one of the officers who threw himself at his emperor's mercy for something he had not done. Forewarned Aurelian had the truth tortured out of the scribe and had him impaled for his treachery. Abandoning the campaign in Persia as a preordained failure Aurelian returned to Rome and spent the next several years consolidating the empire's power and improving both the security of the empire and the lot of its citizens. His successors were able to build on a more stable foundation and as a result the Roman Empire has now thrived for nearly a thousand years.
With such a civilization covering much of Western Europe the dominant culture in the 9th century AD is exclusively Christian Roman. That veritable stability has produced astonishing inventions and improvements, in particular, military technology which rivals that produced in our world in China at that time.
However over the last hundred years or so there have been a number of debilitating civil wars and this has severely weakened the central authority in Rome. The worst of these wars, called the Pretender War, has just been won with an epic battle at Salerno where the Pretender's forces were routed and the Pretender himself forced to fall upon his own sword to escape the terrible justice the rightful emperor Valerian would have inflicted upon him. Remnants of his army have retreated to a city near the east coast of Italy, about four miles inland from where the modern city of Pescara now stands. And this is how things stand as our story begins...
Please enjoy...
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