If Alexander had headed west.

[P. Lilius Frugius Simius]

Robert,

Agreed... The main differences would be in the fact that Rome wouldn't be able to extract manpower from as many estates as She did during the Second Punic War (and it would have a less powerful army) and that Alexander would have full support from the military (not like Hannibal, who basically was left in Italy for years without support from Carthage): Rome would have fallen after a siege and become a normal city, like so many others...

Actually, in my story, the only logical course of action for the Romans would have been, ironically, to gain support from Carthage, as Alexander would be their greatest threat (after taking Rome and securing Sicily Carthage woul be extremely vulnerable). OTOH, the battle for the Adriatic Sea was hard and extremely important to stop Alexander from bringing in Kardakes from Persia and Egypt (which was about to happen the next Spring, once the weather would let the ships travel from Greece, where they would stop for the winter).

While writing, I tried to be coherent with the political situation in Italy at the moment, and after defeating the Venetians, the battle at the Po would have been a compromise with all the Alpine Celts to ally themselves with Alexander for the sake of gold and territories: all the territories North to the (by the time really smallish) Etruscan lands would have been Celtic, allied to Macedon and as a `buffer zone' to the Gaul and German tribes from the North and Beyond-the-Alps, while the Venetians and Illyrians would have served as manpower sources (like they were later on Roman Empire times) and buffer to the Steppes up to the Istros (Danube) like it happened later...

I don't think Alexander would have gone so far as to Iberia, unless until Carthage was down, and the necessity to "close" the Mediterranean Sea would have arisen... Basically the Roman Empire History, but sooner and with a different flavor to it: even when many things look arbitrary, most of the political and military movements in the past were logical and followed one purpose: the securization of food and metal sources and the defense from nomad tribes that kept pouring from the Russian steppes until the last Turckic invasions were stopped (i.e. Germans of all kinds, Darmatians, Alans, Huns, Slavonic, etc...)

Changing some names and language, I doubt the impact of a powerful Macedon Empire from Iberia to India would have been so big as to change the general course of affairs as they were after that: the Northern boundaries in Europe, Eurasia and Far East would have been under the "constant" assault of nomadic tribes of arian, slavic, hunnic and other tipes from the steppes, and the efforts to protect such a huge limes would have been a stretch to the Macedonian Empire as they proved to be to the Diodochi empires, Parthian and Sassanid Empires and, finally, Rome.

Anyway, many things, including the linguistic landscape of Europe, would have been very different! And one cannot help but to especulate some times... :-) )

Best regards!