Imagine if the Roman Empire had never fallen and instead evolved into a stable, centralized government. How would this affect the world? I think we’d see a much slower spread of Christianity, given that Rome’s later emperors were pagan revivalists. Perhaps instead of the dominance of the Church, there would be more philosophical diversity. On the other hand, we might not have had the Renaissance as it happened, since so much of that was rediscovering Greek and Roman culture that had been “lost.” Thoughts?