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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 488028" data-attributes="member: 7240">Dr. Strangemonkey, I think a lot of your ideas would be much fun though about as inevitable as mine (ie. not at all). But as for the issue of slavery you raise, remember that in fact the lot of slaves would be better in much of Europe under Roman dominion. Chattel slavery is a feature of the Germanic tribes; only they saw humans as actual property. The Roman (and hence Spanish and Portuguese) system of slavery was complex, with many checks and balances allowing people to escape slavery -- it worked on an indentured servitude model rather than a chattel model. One of the big influences of the Vikings/Varingians on Russia is that serfdom is constructed on the chattel model. As for the small holder relationship to the throne, one does see this addressed in Byzantium through the rise of autocratic power. Also, in the West, if one were to set the story in the Justinian theory, the empire would be starting from scratch in the newly regained western territories.</blockquote>