Roman Australia

MarkA

OTL:
Circa AD 166 an embassy from the Chinese Empire arrives at Rome and is received by Marcus Aurelius. He dispatches a delegation to the court of the Han Emperor. I do not know what happened to them but I think they never make it.

ATL:
The Romans arrive in China and conclude a successful trade agreement. Silk, spices, paper and technologies like the magnetic compass and gunpowder are to be exchanged for gold and precious gems. Also the Chinese send a number of Chinese soldiers back with the Roman ambassador as a gift to Caesar.

Impressed with the goods sent back, Marcus arranges an imperial sponsered trade convoy from Egypt to India and then to China which carries a return gift of legionaries as well as the gold. The ships dock in China and the Romans and Chinese begin to do business together.

One of the Roman envoys hears rumours of a court conspiracy to frame the barbarians from the west in some crime or other. After a hastily convened meeting of the Roman leadership the ambassador, a member of the imperial family, decides to make some excuse to the emperor and return home with as many of his fellow citizens as possible, including the legionaries, as well as the trade goods and some technical experts.

The Han Emperor agrees to his request to return and instructs his officials to grant all the requests of the Romans. Loaded aboard are technical experts, scholars and soldiers. As well as the weapons and armour of the Chinese troops there is also sent necessary materials along with the technicians skilled in making paper, gunpowder and compasses etc. The deal is for the Romans to send back on the return voyage art works, precious gems, gold and slaves. Female slaves as well as wives and families of the Chinese accompany the expedition. Horses too are sent.

The convoy leaves China and after some time is buffeted by a strong storm. Some ships are lost while the remainder find themselves in uncharted seas. After some landings that fail to reveal their location and some more foul weather, they find themselves off the northern coast of what is now Queensland, Australia.

Will they settle there or try to find their way home? Will they try to find a better area to settle? What will become of their decendants?
 

carlton_bach

Meh, these are Romans. They'll go home, or die trying.

On a more serious note, the style of expedition is highly unlikely (no Antonine emperor could have afforded giving away troops politically) and I don't think there would be gunpowder available yet.
 

pa_dutch

I doubt they'd do anything with it. They'd probably just attempt to go home, and if they make it, some day one of them would tell a historian or ethnographer of their travels, to be recorded in a book that they'd found a large island or perhaps even the "Terra Australis". This could, however, serve to keep Australia within awareness of the Old World, and perhaps Muslims would colonize it in later times before Europeans did.
 

wkwillis

A better POD would be Crassus's army lost to the Persians. The captured Roman army is sent south to deal with a rebellion instead of east. They find out about India and such and defect to become mercenaries, but can't make it home by sea because Egypt has joined Persia in fighting Rome. They hear rumors of a land far to the south with only barbarians to fight and when they've worn out their welcome in India they send a ship to find out if it's true. With the money they make looting some cities they start to ferry over their dependents to Perth. Later they conquer the rest of Australia because they have horses.
Eventually their children lose interest in Rome except as someplace far away. Their wives and kids still are interested in trading with India and China, of course, but what does Rome have for them?
 

Tyr

This thread makes me think of the old series Aquilla.
The Roman centurion had plans for a Roman Australia before he was killed (or did he just die in a accident...) IIRC....
 
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