Re: imagining language(s)

In response to what Ray Brown wrote:

>>running with pclark's idea:
>>    imagine if =
>>        1. - the militantly democratic Greeks defeated the imperialistic
>>Romans
>
>Umm - you'd first have to change Greek history to get your militantly
>democratic Greeks.
>
    that is what I was stating - imagine an ancient militantly Greek
democracy.
    (I was a little ambigous I guess)  =)

>Now if the Carthaginians had won the 'Punic Wars', things would have _very_
>different.  Latin would have developed no literary form and fallen into
>oblivion together with the Roman alphabet.  <SNIP> Would the Phoenicians/
>Carthaginians have had the same high regard for the Greeks as the Romans
did?  >I think it less likely.

    And what if the hearts, minds & military might of Rome had backed Greece
(in another words, after Greece took over Rome, the Romans became "equal
partners" in spreading a Greco-Roman democracy)?  <ok, I am making this as
though Greece was like some weird proto-USA>  ;)

    Just imagining...
    zHANg