Steele Brand

He does become the face of the Middle Bronze Age.

Alfred does end up defeating the Vikings.

So I think that's part of what a historian does is any situation that he looks at, he has to look at alternatives.

Because the people who are living through history, Alfred the Great, he doesn't know what's going to happen.

Hammurabi doesn't know that he's actually going to be...

the one who builds an empire in the Middle Bronze Age.

Jesus of Nazareth, it doesn't look like to anyone else that he's going to be the founder of this like huge religion of Christianity.

Roman Empire doesn't, it's not even really noticed for a century.

So I think that's really, it's really important for historians to actually appreciate the value of alternate history.

And so that's what Livy's doing here.

And Livy's alternate history basically poses this question, what if he had attacked, and it's around 321, because he's actually timed this at a time when Rome is at a horrible, they got trapped in Samnium, deep in like at the Caudine Forks, and an entire army had to surrender.

It was massively embarrassing.

The Samnites probably should have wiped out.

the Roman army.

And he pauses right there and says, okay, well, at this horrible moment in the Second Samurai War, what if Alexander had invaded the Roman Republic?

And then he sets this up and then he kind of teases out, he raises questions like, well, what about the regime?

Who has the superior political structure?

What about manpower?

Who has the better situation in terms of manpower?

What about the capabilities of commanders?