Sine Roma - What if Rome never existed? Wiki

**Welcome to the Sine Roma Wiki!**

**This wiki currently has 54 articles.**

**Sine Roma** is an alternate history scenario about a different world in which the city of Rome never existed.

## Note

- Note that this timeline is still **under construction**, meaning that certain events could change **anytime**, until the lore is finished.

- Chapter 1 will take a deep dive into the world until 500 CE. Chapter 2, from 500-1000 CE.

- An important thing to keep in mind, is that from now on, the term "Rasenna" will also be used for Etruria or the Etruscans, as well as "Albion" for the British island. This is since they are attested to call themselves "Rasenna", as well as "Albion" for the British Celts. "Phoenician" instead of "Punic" will be used as a demonym for Carthage. However, most other terms for geopolitical entities, that came from the Romans, will remain the same and all exceptions will be labeled in the text.

\* Indicates that a name or event is fictional, though made to fit with the timeline.

- OTL = Our timeline, TTL = This timeline.

- If you would like to edit anything or want to participate in any way, feel free to **contact** me on discord (NCL#8053).

## Introduction

In our world, the ancient Romans were so respectful of tradition and ancient practices that they revered the founder of Rome, Romulus, even though he murdered his brother Remus. In fact, the myth of Romulus and Remus was crucial to the construction of Roman identity and important in the development of their values and worldview.

**The Legend**

According to the generally accepted version of the myth, the father of Romulus and Remus, was the Latin War God Mars and their mother was the vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia. She was the daughter of the King of Alba Longa who was deposed by his brother, Amulius. He forced her to become a vestal virgin so she would not bear any sons.

It was prophesied to the new king that any male children she bore would depose him. When he heard that Rhea Silvia was pregnant, he was enraged. Amulius ordered that the twins be *exposed—*a common form of infanticide in Rome throughout its history.

A servant was ordered to take the boys in a basket and abandon them. However, the servant took pity on them and placed the basket with the twins on the River Tiber. The boys floated away and eventually were found by a she-wolf, who suckled them. They were later reared by a shepherd. As young men, the twins returned to Alba Longa and killed the usurper and restored their grandfather to the throne. They then left to find a new city and they eventually stopped at a place on the River Tiber.

The two brothers began to quarrel over the site of the proposed city. Romulus wanted to establish the city on Palatine Hill, while Remus wanted to found it on the Aventine Hill. They came to a compromise, deciding to study the omens from the gods. They agreed to select the site that was chosen by the one who saw the most birds, a common Etruscan divination method.

Remus saw six birds while Romulus claimed to have seen over a dozen. However, Remus refused to recognize the omens of the gods and decided to build his city on a hill neighboring his brother Romulus. The two men and their followers began to clash. Romulus, who was the shrewder of the two, began to build a ditch and wall around his settlement. Remus began to mock this and jumped over the walls in mockery of his brother’s efforts. This led to a fight.

One of Romulus’ supporters struck his twin with a spade and he was almost immediately killed. And it was too late when Romulus realized, that his brothers' knife had rammed his chest, and simultaneously, both siblings, before dying from their wounds, fell down into the grass, looked each other in the eyes, flooded with tears, and during their last seconds, imagined a world in which they never killed each other.

With no king to rule Rome, the town never grew larger than a small settlement. And centuries after, it was slowly swallowed by the expanding Etruscan culture, dooming its fate forever.

The world has changed drastically. The power vacuum left by Rome, led the way for Empires like Carthage, Pontos, the Arverni and the Sasssanids to rise. What follows, is a showcase of Sine Roma's Chapter 1.

**Albian Federation**

*(coming soon)*

**Armenia**

The Artaxiad Kingdom of Armenia, experienced its greatest expansion and hegemony under Tigranes II the Great, effectively ending the Seleucid Empire in 83 BCE. This was, however, not long to last, as in 54 BCE, the rising Parthian Empire, had overrun the kingdom, and thus, the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia was established.

**Arvernian Empire**

Long before, the Greek Kingdom of Massalia and the Carthaginian Empire had influenced southern Gaul, the Arverni were already the most powerful Gallic tribe. The first king, \*Caturix I, established the Arvernian Kingdom in 184 CE, which after his death in 202 CE, turned into the Arvernian Empire under \*Leucorix I, who had a vision of a united Gaul under Teutates, and thus adopted the monotheistic religion of Teutarism. By 240, his Empire, stretched from Aquitania to Batavia, and from Aremorica all the way to the Po Valley in Italy. However, during the Age of Migrations, the Arverni suffered from instability, and in 407, collapsed as a result of Germanic raids, by the Vandals, Suevi and Alans, and was reorganized into the federational Gallic Empire.

**Belgian Empire**

*(coming soon)*

**Carthaginian Empire**

Probably the greatest Empire in all of Antiquity, together with the Sassanids, the Carthaginian Empire remained the dominant power in the entire Mediterranean for almost 500 years and in the Western Mediterranean for over 700 years. Originally a colony of the Phoenician city of Sur (Tyre), the Carthaginians asserted their independence as a kingdom, in around 650 BCE. Over the next centuries, the Empire grew heavily in size, vassalizing the Rasennan Kingdom in 319 BCE, effectively gaining control over all of Italy. The Pyrrhic War, was a victory for the Carthaginians. During the time of Hannibal's conquests, Carthage managed to occupy all of Iberia by 202 BCE, interrupted by a Numidian War, which was then silenced by Hannibal. Carthage, then expanded its power into the Levantine Sea, reconquering their Phoenician homeland by 50 BCE, which would mark the beginning of the Carthaginian Golden Age. During this period, the Phoenicians, started founding cities in West Africa, and later even exploring as far south as the South cape of Africa. The prosperity came to an end, when the Arvernian Empire, invaded Italy during the Padanian War (235-237). After suffering a defeat against the Gauls, an Italian uprising completely destroyed the Carthaginian garrisons, which only managed to hold onto Southern Italy.

However, this prosperity was brutally interrupted during the Great Mediterranean War (327-335 CE). The Sassanid shah, marched into Syria as well as the Levant and following their annihilation on the battlefield, even Egypt fell to the Persians, which was crucial for grain exports. Initially aiming to protect the Samnites from Etruria in 327, Carthage was plunged into a war with not only Rasenna, but also with the Arvernian Empire. Even though the Arverni incursion into Iberia at first utterly failed, shortly after, supply and manpower shortages devastated the Carthaginian army, causing every single front to collapse, and only retaining control over North Africa, Sicily, the Balearic islands and Sardinia by 335.

Sardinia and the Balaeric islands were captured by the Etruscans, and in 344 the Carthaginian heartland was naval invaded. This African campaign, however, was sabotaged by the Numidians who drove out the invaders, but did not ally with Carthage, leaving the remaining city of Carthago and the island of Sicily in an extremly tricky situation. The Numidians could not infiltrate Carthago, even after numerous attempts, because of constant supplies from Phoenician Sicily. On the other hand, Rasenna could not invade Sicily and allow the fall of the prosperous capital to their other rival, the Numidians.

This stalemate even endured by 415 CE, when Germanic Vandals pushed the Numidians west and southwards out of their homeland, yet could not storm the Carthaginian capital. However, even though by this point most of Europe was completely devastated from Hunnic and German invasions, the Carthaginian Republic, still remained the center of European civilization, alongside Etruria, as Carthago and Sicily were effectively untouched.

**Cimbrian Kingdom**

The Cimbrian Kingdom was a Germanic kingdom, located in the area of the former Greek Kingdom of Massalia. It was established in 108 BCE, after migrating with their allies, the Teutons, Tigurini and Tougeni, into southern Gaul, after a flood in the Jutland peninsula, their homeland. Over ten thousand Greeks fled to the Iberian colonies, establishing a united kingdom, called "New Greece" (Neos Ellas). The Cimbrian Kingdom collapsed in 223, after an invasion from the Teutarist Arvernian Empire.

**Dacia**

Established in 168 BCE, by king Robobostes, the Kingdom of Dacia reached its greatest expansion under Burebista, and stretched from the Black Sea to the source of the river Tisa and from the Danube to Bohemia. During the time of the Pontic Empire, both often waged war against each other. However, it was soon made a Pontic vassal until its independence in 238 CE. During the next centuries, Goths and Huns raided and devastated the region, until Dacia's independence, in 458.

**Demetrian Kingdom**

Originally a split-off state from the Second Macedonian Empire, the Demetrian Kingdom, was founded by Demetrius I, the younger, though by his legitimate wife the only son of Philip V, after he rebelled against his elder brother, Perseus I in 158 BCE. Shortly afterwards, he crowned himself as "Ahmose III" to deeply integrate into Egyptian culture. In contrast to their Ptolemaic predecessor, the Demetrians favoured more Egyptian culture, and less Greek. In 155 BCE, the Demetrians re-annexed the Levant from the declining Seleucid Empire. After a great flood and famine led to their decline, the Parthian and the Carthaginian Empire invaded Egypt from both sides, causing its collapse in 38 BCE.

**Gallic Empire**

*(coming soon)*

**Gothic Kingdom**

Originally from Scandinavia, the Goths had migrated from their homeland to OTL modern-day Poland and later Ukraine in 210 CE. Unlike in our timeline, however, the Goths did not split and established a powerful, united kingdom by 238, waging numerous wars with the Sassanid Empire for decades to come. After attempting to invade the Peloponnese in 328, during the Great Mediterranean War, the Goths were annihilated by a combined force of Greeks and allied Sassanids, yes you heard that right. Thus the Gothic kingdom was fully conquered by 331.

**Hellenic League**

Risen from the ashes of a shattered Greece conquered by the Gothic people, the Hellenic League united the Greek peninsula, under the Christian religion, together with an unusual allied army of the Persian Empire. Even though Crete and Thrace were submitted to the Sassanids, the Hellenic League began to flourish and experienced a golden age of wealth and technological advancements, sometimes competing with their former ally. This drastically changed in 448, when Attila of the Hunnic Empire raided, sacked and invaded Greece. Numerous churches were burned down, and this dark age lasted until 453, when the Huns finally withdrew from their homeland.

**Hunnic Empire**

Arguably the main cause of the collapse of the Arvernian and Carthaginian Empire, the Huns brought Europe a dark age, marked by instability, poverty and raiding. After migrating to OTL modern-day Ukraine, the Huns reached their greatest extent, under Attila, who not only conquered Thrace, Illyria and the Hellenic League of Greece, but also waged multiple great wars with the Sasanian Empire, before, however, being defeated at the Battle of Antioch in 451. During the next decades, the Huns began to decline, until the collapse of their Empire, in 466.

**Macedonia**

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, the Macedonian Empire, was divided by successor states, known as the Diadochi. After the Pyrrhic Wars, Macedonia slowly reestablished its hegemony over Greece. Philip V, (r. 221-158 BCE), greatly expanded Macedonian power and influence. During the Second Social War (213-211 BCE), Philip V crushed the last opposition against Macedon and its allies in all of Greece. However, after defeating the Aetolian League, Philip V provoked Epirus into attacking the Achaean League, and shortly after invaded both nations and all other members of the Hellenic League, during the Third Social War (210-207 BCE). Philip, then, made a pact with the Seleucid king, Antiochus III the Great, and together partitioned all of Anatolia and Thrace by 183 BCE, effectively laying the foundations for the Second Macedonian Empire, in the legacy of Alexander. In 179 BCE, Philip conquered the Ptolemaic Kingdom. This occupation would last until his death in 158 BCE, when one of his sons, Demetrius, established the Demetrian Kingdom of Egypt. By 88 BCE, the rising Pontic Empire under the ambitious king Mithridates VI the Great, had attacked Macedonia. However, Pontos came out successful and all of Greece was now divided into Pontic vassal states. After the collapse of Pontos, in 238, Macedon asserted its independence. However, Goths and Huns, would soon devastate the region and interrupt the newly formed Hellenic League.

**Parthian Empire**

Founded 247 BCE, in Central Asia, the Parthians would soon march into the declining Seleucid Empire. By 148 BCE, all of the Iranian plateau, including Eastern Mesopotamia was now under Parthian hegemony. The Parthians pushed further into Syria and together with Armenia, conquered the Seleucids. The Parthian Empire invaded Armenia in 54 BCE, breaking any ties with the Pontic Empire, which was an ally of Armenia. In 40 BCE, together with their enemy, Carthage, the Parthians invaded Egypt from both sides, ending the Demetrian Kingdom in 38 BCE. However, what followed the next centuries is a Parthian dark age. In 50 CE, a great Christian rebellion in Judea, which was supported by the Pontic Empire, effectively reverted all Parthian gains in the Levantine region. In 224 CE, the Sasanians established their own Persian kingdom, which expanded greatly in the next years. By 227, the now intact Parthian Empire was fully conquered by the Sassanid Empire.

**Pontos**

Originally only a medium-sized kingdom in Northeast Anatolia, the Kingdom of Pontos would soon follow a completely different path. Under Mithridates VI the Great, Pontos expanded drastically and by 94 BCE, the Pontic Empire, stretched from the coast of Western Anatolia to the Caucasus and from the Bosporan Kingdom to Cappadocia. However, the expansion did not halt yet, and in 88 BCE, Mithridates waged a war against the Second Macedonian Empire. Mithridates came out victorious, and divided Greece in numerous vassal states, founding the great city of Mithripolis, on the foundation of Byzantion. After the Great Christian Rebellion of 50 CE, Pontos took this oppurtunity and invaded Syria, controlled by the Parthian Empire. During the next centuries Pontos would be the only Hellenistic Empire in the known world, waging wars on their way, with the Dacians until 224 CE. This was the year when the Sassanid Persians began to overrun the entire Middle East, annihilating and destroying the Parthian Empire and any eastern holdings of the Carthaginian Empire. The Sasanian Empire, then invaded Pontos in 231, and seven years later, the Empire utterly collapsed.

**Ptolemaic Kingdom**

As one of Alexander the Great's successor states, the Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded in 305 BCE by Ptolemy I Soter. Egypt retained its powerful position in the Middle East until the rise of the Second Macedonian Empire. In 179 BCE, the unstable kingdom, led by a child, was invaded by Macedon, and collapsed, with support from Macedon's ally, the Seleucid Empire, under Antiochus III the Great. The king was executed, though the remaining Ptolemies, however, would be forgotten from history and would vanish in exile.

**Rasenna**

The Rasennan League, asserted its dominance in the iron-age Italian peninsula. This changed when in the early 4th century BCE, Rasenna saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast. The Kingdom of Senonia was founded in 388 BCE by the Gallic war-leader Brennos, after he sacked and subdued most Rasennan cities. Rasenna soon rose up and Brennos was killed in 359 BCE, leading the way for the Kingdom of Rasenna. However, as the following Celtic invasions constantly devastated the North, the Rasennans had to rely greatly on Carthage's protection. However, in return, the Carthaginians vassalized Rasenna in 319 BCE, in result of their dependency. After betraying the Phoenicians, in result of the Padanian War (236-237 CE), Rasenna managed to assert its independence in 237 CE.

After Shapur II, king of the Persian Empire, marched into the Carthaginian Levant in 327, Rasenna and the Gauls used this as a chance to assert dominace in Italy, as well as in the Adriatic Sea. That same year, their combined forces marched into the independent Samnite kingdom. Having no other choice, the Samnites asked the Carthaginians for help, who accepted, believing that they were only defending the kingdom against a minor Etruscan attack. By 329, all of Italy and Corsica, except Sicily were overrun as a result. Six years later, the Carthaginians only retained control over North Africa, Sicily, the Balearic islands and Sardinia. This weakness was used to their advantage by the Rasennan King, \*Larth Vulca, who naval invaded the North African heartland of Carthage.

This campaign, however, was sabotaged in 346 by the Numidians who drove out the invaders, but did not ally with Carthage, leaving the remaining city of Carthago and the island of Sicily in an extremly tricky situation. The Numidians could not infiltrate Carthago, even after numerous attempts, because of constant supplies from Phoenician Sicily. On the other hand, Rasenna could not invade Sicily and allow the fall of the prosperous capital to their other rival, the Numidians. Nonetheless, both the Etruscan Empire and the Carthaginian Republic flourished during the next centuries of a European Dark Age.

**Sasanian Empire**

Arguably emerged from the ashes of the great Achaemenid Empire, the Sassanid Persians established their own kingdom in 224 CE. The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, a local Iranian ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened from internal strife and civil wars. During the following years, the Sasanians would swallow the entire Middle East, including Parthia, Arsacid Armenia, and at last the mighty Pontic Empire, by 238. The Empire, now stretched from Thrace all the way to Indus River, and from Egypt to Central Asia. Thus, a new age has begun, the Persian Age. Soon Goths and later Huns, would wage numerous wars, all of which unsuccessful, which even indirectly led to the collapse of those Empires. As the Carthaginian Empire suffered enormous losses during the Great Mediterranean War, in the 4th Century CE, the Sassanids slowly took their place as the dominant power in the known world. Even during the Age of Migrations and the Huns, Persia remainend the center of civilization.

**Seleucid Empire**

The Seleucid Empire, was founded as a diadochi successor state in 305 BCE, by Seleucus I Nicator, located in Mesopotamia and OTL modern-day Iran. In the early second century BCE, Antiochus III the Great expanded the empire greatly into the west and east. He would bring peace and prospertiy into the Seleucid Kingdom until his death in 161 BCE. However, the Seleucids began to slowly decline soon after. Mithridates I of Parthia conquered much of the remaining eastern lands of the Seleucid Empire in the mid-second century BCE, while the independent Greco-Bactrian Kingdom continued to flourish in the northeast. The Seleucid kings were thereafter reduced to a rump state in Syria, until their conquest by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 83 BCE.

**Thrace**

The Thracian, earlier known as the Odrysian Kingdom was a Thracian kingdom that existed from the early 5th century BCE, until 189 BCE. This was the year, when the Thracian League, consistent of Thrace, Bithynia, and Pergamon was partitioned and conquered by the Second Macedonian Empire, and its ally, the Seleucid Empire. Thrace, was then occupied by Pontos, Sassanids, Goths, and Huns. Finally, in 458 CE, Thrace asserted its independence. However, the land left behind by the Huns, was completely devastated and pillaged.

**The question about Christianity:**

Around 4 BCE, a person is born, who would spread his religion far beyond the borders of the known world. Jesus Christ dies around 49 CE, arrested and stoned by the Jewish client king of Parthia. Because of his much longer life, he managed to get more supporters than in OTL. Shortly after his death, according to Christians, there was a resurrection, which brought Jesus back to life. The Apostles then travel around the known world, spreading the word.

*My opinion:*

I'd say Christianity could have spread as well, if Rome never existed (of course not as far as in OTL), though Jesus and his Apostels would have still existed and some Jews would follow him likely even more than in OTL because of his longer life, though again there would always be "anti-Christ" Jews. Jesus would likely be murdered by these Jews possibly somewhere in his 50s, and his apostels would start spreading the religion. I think it would even be easier to spread a religion, in a continent that has rather many divided states than in a vast empire (Rome always saw Christianity as a threat). If lets say a few states adopt it, they would spread it to the other states, because the main point of Christianity is to spread it. Other than pagan religions, which were based on their culture and were rather hard to spread.

The World of Sine Roma in 150 BCE. (A low quality resolution as Fandom doesn't allow files over 10mb). Higher resolution: https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/q77mdg/sine\_roma\_a\_world\_without\_rome\_150\_bce/

If you're interested in more detailed information, below you will find a list of all the current articles.

## Important articles

Albian FederationArmenia (Artaxiad)Arvernian EmpireBelgian EmpireCarthaginian EmpireCimbrian KingdomDaciaDemetrian KingdomGallic EmpireGothic KingdomHellenic LeagueHunnic EmpireMacedoniaParthian EmpirePontosPtolemaic KingdomRasennaSasanian EmpireSeleucid EmpireThrace
## Nations

Albian Federation

Armenia (Arsacid)

Armenia (Artaxiad)

Arvernian Empire

Belgian Empire

Carthaginian Empire

Cimbrian Kingdom

Dacia

Demetrian Kingdom

Epirus

Gallic Empire

Gepid Kingdom

Gothic Kingdom

Hellenic League

Hunnic Empire

Jerusalem (Bishopric)

Macedonia

Parthian Empire

Pontos

Ptolemaic Kingdom

Rasenna

Rugiland

Sasanian Empire

Seleucid Empire

Senonia (Kingdom of Brennos)

Thrace

## Persons

Antiochus III the Great

Arsaces I of Parthia

Attila

Balamber

Dengizich

Jesus Christ

Mithridates I of Parthia

Mithridates II of Parthia

Mithridates VI the Great

Paul the Apostle

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Tigranes II the Great

Uldin

## Wars

First Hunnic-Sasanian War

Fifth Hunnic-Sasanian War

Fourth Hunnic-Sasanian War

Pyrrhic War

Second Hunnic-Sasanian War

Third Gothic-Sasanian War

Third Hunnic-Sasanian War

## Other

Visions of Teutates (Book)