The date 1453 marked a highly significant event: the fall of the final area of land possessed by the Roman Empire (Constantinople). However, its decline had begun more than 1500 years before this drastic event happened. So it is only natural to ask the question: What if the Roman Empire never fell? Since this is mostly a science blog, I will mostly explore the science-y and technological parts of this intriguing question. However, I will also attempt to sprinkle in some historical nuggets of knowledge as well for those history fans out there.
The date 1453 marked a highly significant event: the fall of the final area of land possessed by the Roman Empire (Constantinople). However, its decline had begun more than 1500 years before this drastic event happened. So it is only natural to ask the question: What if the Roman Empire never fell? Since this is mostly a science blog, I will mostly explore the science-y and technological parts of this intriguing question. However, I will also attempt to sprinkle in some historical nuggets of knowledge as well for those history fans out there.
The Many Benefits of a Unified Tongue
The Many Benefits of a Unified Tongue
One of the most fundamental dividers that humans face between each other is language. Not being able to understand someone is perhaps the most powerful force that prevents cross-country friendships, and also restricts international relations. The Roman Empire would solve that. Under a single ruler, empire and nation, the people’s languages would begin to merge, creating an overarching tongue that everyone could understand.
One of the most fundamental dividers that humans face between each other is language. Not being able to understand someone is perhaps the most powerful force that prevents cross-country friendships, and also restricts international relations. The Roman Empire would solve that. Under a single ruler, empire and nation, the people’s languages would begin to merge, creating an overarching tongue that everyone could understand.
Trading would be easier, political disputes would be resolved more efficiently, and unreliable translators prone to error would no longer be of use. Not only these, but scientific ideas could also be communicated more efficiently without the loss of details or accuracy, accelerating scientific advancements and helping the Empire develop even further.
Cities of Circles
Cities of Circles
If there is one thing that the Roman Empire was known for, it is this: all roads lead to Rome. Firstly, the fact that they had invented proper roads in the first place is rather impressive, but the way they were arranged was even more so. With more time for development, this could evolve into widespread concentric cities where everything is based in layers and all the roads would lead to the center. The center would be the recreational area with sports centres, parks or communal areas. Surrounding this would be a layer of shops, with the more important ones (i.e. grocery stores, pharmacies) being closer to the center-facing roads and the less important being further away. Outside this would be a section of houses where people with lower incomes could be situated. Next would be a ring of middle-income people, and then finally the upper class, with elaborate mansions far away from the noisy center. However, this could cause unfair separation beetween classes, so the empire would need ot create policies to separate inequality.
The Powerhouses of the Empire
The Powerhouses of the Empire
A few kilometres away, a pair of SMRs (small modular reactors) would be working away, providing enough power to power the town, using nuclear fission to generate electricity. Currently, a company called NuScale is designing SMRs that would be safe (assuming proper maintenance and safe disposal of waste) to use practically anywhere, and could be connected in pairs or more (hence the ‘modular’ part) to provide the required wattage for the area in need. However, fission would not be the only source of energy. A fusion reactor would produce more than enough energy to power multiple cities, requiring only around 1 g of hydrogen to make more than 11 metric tons of coal worth of energy (in the most efficient reaction). However, there is a catch! The hydrogen atoms are positively charged, requiring an immense amount of force to push together, like how you have to push a magnet to another magnet when the same poles are facing each other. By this time, though, I assume the Romans would have figured things out with their genius brains.
Fast, Efficient and Simple: The Elegant Design of the Hyperloop
Travelling from one city to another would also be a challenge, but, no surprise here, the Roman Empire has a solution, known as hyperloops. In an airtight metal tube, a near vacuum is created, reducing air resistance by orders of magnitude. A capsule, then, would be levitated and propelled by a variety of means, like magnetic propulsion, along the tunnel at a mind-blowing 750 mph (1224 kph), rivalling airlines (a Boeing 747 has an average cruising speed of 560 mph (around 900 kph)). It also requires much less energy, as both friction and air resistance are virtually eliminated. This concept may raise some eyebrows to some people, which is totally fair, as travelling at airline-level speeds in a partial vacuum in a sealed tube does come with some risks, but the Roman Empire would have developed numerous technologies already to mitigate them.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the fall of the Roman Empire did create a lot of setbacks for the world, and maybe we’d have been better off if it never fell. However there were flaws of the empire, and totalitarian tyranny would also be a possibility. However, we live in a world where time machines don’t exist, and this scenario has no chance of happening. Despite this, it is a good example, of when smart and hardworking people are given enough time, the results will be amazing. Feel free to ask any questions, or post what else you think might have happened to the world (politics, social structure, technologies, e.t.c) if this scenario became a reality down in the comments below.