Editing Alternate history (section)

===Antiquity and medieval===
[[File:Tirante el Blanco 1511.jpg|thumb|Title page of the first [[Spanish language|Spanish-language]] translation of [[Joanot Martorell]]'s ''[[Tirant lo Blanch]]'' (originally in Catalan)]]
The earliest example of alternate (or counterfactual) history is found in [[Livy]]'s ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita Libri]]'' (book IX, sections 17–19). Livy contemplated an alternative 4th century BC in which [[Alexander the Great]] had survived to attack Europe as he had planned; asking, "What would have been the results for [[Roman Empire|Rome]] if she had been engaged in a war with Alexander?"<ref name = Livy/><ref name="roads">{{cite book |last1=Dozois |first1=Gardner |author-link=Gardner Dozois |first2=Stanley |last2=Schmidt |title=Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History |publisher=Del Rey |year=1998 |location=New York |pages=1–5 |isbn=0-345-42194-9|author2-link=Stanley Schmidt }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Turtledove |first1=Harry |author-link=Harry Turtledove |first2=Martin H. |last2=Greenberg |title=The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century |publisher=Del Rey |year=2001 |location=New York |pages=1–5 |isbn=978-0-345-43990-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bestalternatehis00newy |author2-link=Martin H. Greenberg }}</ref> Livy concluded that the Romans would likely have defeated Alexander.<ref name = Livy>{{cite book |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy09.html |author=Titus Livius (Livy) |title=The History of Rome, Book 9 |publisher=[[Marquette University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070228233052/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy09.html |archive-date=28 February 2007 |url-status=dead |author-link=Livy }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Ruth |last=Morello |title=Livy's Alexander Digression (9.17–19): Counterfactuals and Apologetics |journal=[[Journal of Roman Studies]] |volume=92 |year=2002 |pages=62–85 |doi=10.2307/3184860 |jstor=3184860 |s2cid=162588619 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Overtoom |first=Nikolaus |title=A Roman tradition of Alexander the Great counterfactual history |journal=Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |volume=52 |issue=3 |year=2012 |pages=203–212 |doi=10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.3.2 }}</ref> An even earlier possibility is [[Herodotus]]'s ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', which contains speculative material.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Geoffrey |last=Winthrop-Young |title=Fallacies and Thresholds: Notes on the Early Evolution of Alternate History |journal=[[Historical Social Research]] |year=2009 |volume=34 |issue=2 (128) |pages=99–117 |jstor=20762357 }}</ref>

Another example of counterfactual history was posited by cardinal and [[Doctor of the Church]] [[Peter Damian]] in the 11th century. In his famous work ''De Divina Omnipotentia'', a long letter in which he discusses [[God]]'s [[omnipotence]], he treats questions related to the limits of divine power, including the question of whether God can change the past,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/peter-damian/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|last=Holopainen|first=Toivo J.|chapter=Peter Damian |date=2016|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2016}}</ref> for example, bringing about that Rome was never founded:<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5503029m|title=Petrus Damianus|last=Migne|first=Jacques-Paul|work=Patrologia Latina|publisher=Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge|year=1853|volume=145|location=Paris|pages=595–622|language=la|chapter=De divina omnipotentia in reparatione, et factis infectis redendis|author-link=Jacques Paul Migne}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Lettre sur la toute-puissance divine. Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes|last=Damien|first=Pierre|work=Sources chrétiennes|publisher=Les Éditions du Cerf|year=1972|volume=191|location=Paris|language=fr|translator-last=Cantin|translator-first=André|author-link=Peter Damian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Letters of Peter Damian 91-120.|last=Damian|first=Pierre|date=2013|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|isbn=978-0813226392|series=The Fathers of the Church. Mediaeval Continuation|location=Washington, DC|pages=344–386|translator-last=Blum|translator-first=Owen J.|oclc=950930030|orig-year=1998}}</ref><blockquote>I see I must respond finally to what  many people, on the basis of your holiness's [own] judgment, raise as an objection on the topic of this dispute. For they say: If, as you assert, God is omnipotent in all things, can he manage this, that things that have been made were not  made? He can certainly destroy all things that have been made, so that they do not exist now. But it cannot be seen how he can bring it about that things that have been made were not made. To be sure, it can come about that from now on and hereafter Rome does not exist; for it can be destroyed. But no opinion can grasp how it can come about that it was not founded long ago...<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pvspade.com/Logic/docs/damian.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.pvspade.com/Logic/docs/damian.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Selections from Peter Damian's Letter on Divine Omnipotence|last=Spade|first=Paul Vincent|date=1995}}</ref></blockquote>One early work of fiction detailing an alternate history is [[Joanot Martorell]]'s 1490 [[epic poetry|epic]] [[chivalric romance|romance]] ''[[Tirant lo Blanch]]'', which was written when the [[fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] was still a recent and traumatic memory for [[Christianity in Europe|Christian Europe]]. It tells the story of the knight Tirant the White from Brittany who travels to the embattled remnants of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. He becomes a [[Megas doux|Megaduke]] and commander of its armies and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of {{nowrap|[[Mehmed the Conqueror|Mehmet II]]}}. He saves the city from [[Fall of Constantinople|Islamic conquest]], and even chases the Turks deeper into lands they had previously conquered.