The copy I originally owned was a fix-up that contained two similarly
themed (cross-time/alternate history) stories by the same author. It
would probably have been published in the 1970s and the scene depicted
on the cover was very "Roman". I don't know if the two stories were
originally published separately or not.
The first story was set in an alternate America. The details are a bit
fuzzy but I seem to remember the following elements. The USA wasn't
called that, it was the Republic of America or something like that and
Aaron Burr had established a political dynasty. The North had
unsuccessfully tried to secede but were defeated in a civil war. One
trivia point (and this is definitely in this story), was that in this
timeline they didn't have toothpaste, but instead used some kind of
powder to clean their teeth and one of the characters speculated on
this being a potential cross-time trade item.
The second story was set in the same universe but on a different
timeline. This one was a very Roman society. It may even have been a
pure time travel story. I really don't remember too much about that
one as it seemed to lack any strong AH elements.
So, any ideas? It is the first story that I particularly want to
Identify and read again.
