Athens Triumphant

This one is from a universe where the Athenians managed to create a more acceptable federal form for their league, and avoided pissing off all their allies so badly. As a result, the Peloponnesian War ended with a Spartan defeat, and the Athenians managed to corral most of Greece into an expanded federation. After settling some disagreements with Macedonia, a common purpose was found in expelling the Persian Menace from the Mediterranean, although sans the manic drive of Alexander the Greeks didn’t pursue the Persians beyond Mesopotamia and onto the Iranian plateau.

Fearing that Greeks would “orientalize” if huge swaths of land fell under the control of individuals, much of the territory was incorporated into the League as “associated states” or client kings: Mesopotamia and Egypt, too large and powerful to either become league members or to be safely allowed independence, became “colonial territory” run on behalf of the league as a whole by appointed, limited-term governors.

Over time, such groups as the commercial-minded Phoenicians and the Latins and Romans to the west (too tough to be very easily conquered) were incorporated as “honorary Greeks” with full membership in the League. Client kingdoms are more loosely tied into the League, while outside the League proper various barbarian kingdoms exist within its cultural and economic sphere: Greek shipping trades with India, the British Isles, and even the Baltic barbarians. Direct democracy has moved onto a more representative form, although with its various voting blocks, complex (and often changing) re the number of representatives, and other makeshift arrangements, it’s a more cumbersome system than that of the OTL US, and sessions at the league capital on Rhodes are often a bit raucous.

Art and philosophy have continued to flourish, and something resembling genuine science has been developed, with its principles of experimentation and verification: experiments in optics have given birth to crude telescopes, and the heliocentric viewpoint is winning out. On the other hand, there are a lot of contending non-scientific schools of philosophy, and given the relatively backward engineering “state of the art”, the shortage of coal in the core areas of the League, and the abundance of cheap labor (the League is not as rich in slaves as the OTL Roman Empire, but there are still a lot), an industrial revolution is unlikely and time soon.
The barbarians to the north and east are a bit differently arranged than OTL, the survival of a rump Persia having deflected the Parthians northward, which in turn has led to some different central Asian migrations and the overwhelming of OTLs Dacian state by fresh waves of Scythian peoples from the Steppe.

After some three centuries, the League has reached its greatest territorial extent, although there have been some losses in the east brought on by Persian revival and Mesopotamian revolt. There are still centuries of greatness ahead for the Greeks, but the Time of Troubles lies ahead, as ambitious Greeks in Egypt seek to break away as an independent great power, as Gallic kings seek to extend their power, and Persians see opportunity…