robertp6165 said:
I'm working on it...will probably post it tomorrow.
Here is the second installment of my Saite scenario...
EGYPT VERSUS ROME...264 BC to 200 AD
264 BC...Egypt has, over the centuries, formed close ties with Carthage. Carthage is a major trading partner of Egypt, and militarily, the Carthaginian and Egyptian fleets have, in cooperation (but not formal alliance), dominated the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, in the backwards land known as Italia, a new power has risen...Rome. War breaks out between Rome and Carthage, and after over 20 years of war Carthage is forced to surrender in 241 BC. The Saite Pharaohs of Egypt have watched these developments with keen interest, and they recognize the threat posed by the upstart republic of Rome. When in 235 BC Hamilcar Barca secretly approaches Egypt, seeking a
formal military alliance, Pharaoh Necho VIII accepts. Later, when Hamilcar dies in 228 BC, Egypt renews the alliance with his son, Hannibal.
Necho VIII has noted the Roman invention which gave them naval supremacy over the Carthaginians...the corvus. He has large complements of marines and archers added to the crews of his warships. He also has chest-high railings installed around the decks of his ships (to prevent the corvus from being dropped directly onto the deck, where it's iron spike can fasten the ships together). When war comes, as Necho knows it will, Egypt's ships will be ready.
Pharaoh Necho VIII dies in 223 BC, and is succeeded by Necho IX. In 218 BC, Hannibal precipitates the Second Punic War when he attacks the Roman client city of Saguntum. As in OTL, Hannibal leads his army across the Alps and invades Italy. The Egyptians honour their treaty commitments and send an invasion force by sea to Italy. The Egyptian fleet escorting the invasion
force is intercepted by that of Rome off Tarentum, and a naval battle occurs. Egyptian archers rain flaming arrows on the opposing Roman warships, setting many of them ablaze, and those which manage to get close enough to drop their corvuses find that they do not work due to the new railings installed on the Egyptian vessels. The Romans suffer a bloody defeat, and the Egyptians are able to land on Italian soil. Over the next three years, as Egypt controls the seas, the combined Egyptian and Carthaginian armies establish control over most of Italy. The Egyptians transport over a siege train in 216 BC, and Rome surrenders the following year. Hannibal wants to raze Rome to the ground, kill all the males and sell the women and children into slavery. However, his Egyptian allies persuade him to be more lenient...Pharaoh Necho has no desire to see Carthage’s only rival in the west eliminated. Rome is stripped of all her overseas territories (which are given to Carthage), and a crushing indemnity is imposed (shared by Egypt and Carthage). Carthage and Egypt are now the two most powerful states in the civilized world.
In the succeeding decades, of course, Rome nurses it’s hatred of Carthage and Egypt. Hannibal’s successors in Carthage are not vigilant, and Egypt’s eyes are turned eastward as it is again involved in border wars with the Seleucids and Ptolemies. And so, Rome is able to once again rebuild it’s military power, and it casts about for allies. In 150 BC, Rome signs treaties with Ptolemy VI of Asia Minor and Antiochus VI of the Seleucid Kingdom, and shortly afterward the three allied powers declare war on Carthage and Egypt. Since Egypt has it’s hands full defending against the combined Ptolemaic and Seleucid armies, it is not able to send much help to
Carthage. And unfortunately, Carthage has, at this time, no leader of the caliber of Hamilcar or Hannibal Barca to lead it’s war effort. Roman armies land in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, and over the course of five years defeat the Carthaginian forces there. Rome’s fleet defeats the Carthaginian navy off Sicily in 144 BC, and the Romans land an invasion force near Carthage
later that year. Carthage is placed under siege, and falls in 143 BC. The Romans are not disposed to be merciful, and they raze Carthage to the ground. The men are killed and the women and children sold into slavery. Carthage ceases to exist.
Meanwhile, Egypt has managed to hold off the Ptolemies and Seleucids. But it sees the war going ill for it’s ally, and realizes Carthage may not be in the game much longer. So in 144 BC it does two things. Pharaoh Rameses XVI makes an alliance with King Mithridates I of Parthia, bribing him to attack the Seleucids. He also bribes Ptolemy VII, who has just succeeded to the
kingship and who was never in favor of the alliance with Rome anyway, to make peace with Egypt in exchange for a large payment in gold and some minor land concessions along their mutual border. The Parthians sweep into Iran, and seize most of it as Egyptian armies press into Mesopotamia. Antiochus, desperate to protect his remaining lands from the Parthians, sues for peace with Egypt in 142 BC. A treaty is quickly signed, and Egypt redeploys to meet the Roman threat.
But the Romans do not come. Their attention is fully taken up with the problems of integrating their newly conquered territories into their empire, and when in 141 BC Pharaoh Rameses offers peace, Rome accepts. An uneasy quiet settles on the region.
For the next half-century, Rome turns it’s attention to it’s European neighbors. It fights wars in Gaul, and against Epirus and Macedon, incorporating these areas into it’s Empire by the year 100 BC. Greece loses it’s independence soon after Rome takes Macedon. During the same period,
the Parthians continue to expand in Asia. In a campaign lasting from 129 to 126 BC, King Artabanus II of Parthia invades and conquers the weakened Seleucid realm in Mesopotamia, killing King Demetrius II in the process and ending the Seleucid Dynasty. His successor, Mithridates II, threatens to attack Egypt’s Asian possessions, but (after being bought off by a
substantial bribe) decides to attack Armenia and the Ptolemaic kingdom instead. He invades and conquers Armenia in 120 BC, and then begins a series of wars with the Ptolemies. The Ptolemies appeal to Rome for aid, which is given. Roman legions join the Ptolemaic forces against the Parthians, but although they delay the fall of the the Ptolemaic kingdom, they do not prevent it. The Ptolemaic capital of Ephesus finally falls in 100 BC, and with it, the kingdom. It’s last king, Ptolemy X, is taken to Babylon, where he is flayed alive. But Queen Cleopatra Berenice and most of the rest of the Ptolemaic royal family escape to Rome, and this gives Rome an excuse to continue the war with Parthia. The conflict will go on, at various levels of intensity, for the next 300 years. Egypt sits on the fence throughout the conflict, supporting first one side and then the other (and sometimes both at once!)...it’s Pharoahs reason that as long as Rome and Parthia are at each other’s throats, they won’t have much time or energy to think about attacking
Egypt! And the strategy works well for a long time.
RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS 200 BC to 200 AD: CHRISTIANITY IS BORN
The Saite Pharaohs are, of course, believers in the old gods of Egypt, especially promoting the cults of Osiris and Isis. However, they are very lenient with the peoples in the lands they rule, they are sensitive to the religious feelings of their subject peoples, and they do not attempt to enforce
any sort of religious conformity. One place where this has significant effects is in the tiny province of Yehud, where the Jews have rebuilt their temple. The lenient Egyptian administration allows the Jews complete freedom of worship, and the Jews are loyal subjects of their Egyptian overlords. Thus, there is no Maccabean revolt in this timeline and no independent Jewish state.
However, as in OTL, the main religious life in the province is dominated by the Sadducees (the Temple Priests) and Pharisees (the rabbis). The Sadducees, as in OTL, are involved in politics, and are allowing commercial business to take place in the Temple (i.e. the moneychangers), which offends many of the more pious people. The Pharisees, who might have served as an
alternative, however, are obsessed with petty dietary laws and other minutia, and are seen as hypocrites, observing the form, but not the spirit, of the Law. As a result, many Jews become dissatisfied with their religion and start to follow various cults which look to the arrival of a promised “Messiah” who will restore the Jewish faith to purity.
In 4 BC, a boy named Yeshua is born in Bethlehem. He grows up in the village of Nazareth, where He learns the carpenter’s trade. At about the age of 30 He is called to the ministry, and he travels the land, performs miracles (such as converting water into wine, walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee, feeding a vast multitude with a small number of loaves and fishes, healing the blind and the lame, and raising the dead) and preaches a faith based on brotherly love, and redemption by the mercy of God. He attracts a dedicated following of disciples who travel with Him. Although Yeshua never directly claims this, His followers come to believe that He is the promised Messiah. His followers spread the word that the Messiah has come...a claim that many Jews, especially among the Pharisees and Sadducees, consider blasphemous. In 33 A.D. Yeshua attends a Passover celebration in Jerusalem. He goes into the Temple, sees the commercial huckstering being allowed there, goes into a rage and attacks several of the vendors,
destroying their displays and overturning tables. The alarmed Sadducees call a meeting of the Sanhedrin, where they accuse Yeshua of blasphemy. Yeshua is arrested, brought to trial and condemned to death. He is stoned to death the next morning. Yeshua is buried in a tomb, from which He disappears 3 days later. His followers are soon claiming to have seen Yeshua, risen from the dead, and they immediately begin making converts. Persecution by the local Jewish authorities soon force most of these “Maschiachim,” as they are called (later, they will get the
name “Christian” as they evangelize in Greek-speaking areas), to leave Yehud. They begin evangelizing among the pagans in the surrounding lands and establishing congregations not only in the Egyptian Empire, but also in the Roman Empire and other nearby lands. By 200 AD, the religion is firmly rooted in many places.