A world map from Alexander Athanatos
"It is the fourth year of the 199th Olympiad. Alexander the Great still rules a vast empire, stretching across Europe, Asia, and Africa. At least, his genetic material does."
Alexander Athanatos; 21 CE[1]
Current Affairs: Alexander XVII[2] is dealing with stagnation and unwelcome news regarding his centuries old Empire
Divergence: c 370 BC; Hippocrates and his followers cause huge advances in medicine
TL: TL2 with biotech up to late TL8/early TL9
Quantum: 5
History[]
It all begins with Hippocrates, the father of medicine in the West. In this timeline, he goes a bit "mad science" and learns about artificial insemination. His students develop stronger medical poultices through chemistry and develop a divergent form of antibiotics, dubbed nosopharmaka (literally "disease medicines"). The Great School of Medicine keeps this momentum going for a long time, developing basic anatomical theory and tool sterilization. Development of lenses, improvements of glassmaking, and yet-better lenses allowed smaller and smaller work. All genetic technology up to about TL9 follows suit.
Timeline[]
| Event | Gregorian Year | Olympiad |
| First Olympiad | -776 | Ol. 1,1 |
| Hippocrates develops artificial insemination | -400 | Ol. 95,1 |
| Great Medical School Established | -306 | Ol. 118,3 |
| Death of Alexander I | -289 | Ol. 122,4 |
| First in vitro baby | -216 | Ol. 141,1 |
| First Vaccines | -152 | Ol. 157,1 |
| Plague of Athens | -141 | Ol. 159,4 |
| First cloned frog | -129 | Ol. 162,4 |
| First cloned goat | -117 | Ol. 165,4 |
| First human clone | -112 | Ol. 167,1 |
| King Philip VI visits School | -94 | Ol. 171,3 |
| Humanzees cloned | -86 | Ol. 173,3 |
Trivia[]
- Alexander Athanatos roughly translates to "Alexander Undying"
References[]
- GURPS Bio-Tech, p.217-223