>>13479056Not even close, kid. China and India had gunpowder for centuries, and they never conquered anything. Rome might have an expansionist will, but addition of gunpowder doesn't make horses work better. It doesn't make supply lines any longer. It doesn't stop the Germans from pouring out of the trees and murdering you with axes.
And /especially/ Rome didn't have the social structure for gunpowder promulgation. They had nowhere near the level of metallurgy they needed to make effective guns, no supply chains for those guns, and most importantly: the patricians wouldn't allow it. It meant the plebs could nullify the boons of training, horses, and armor, all of which the patrician strictly controlled access to based on class and citizenship. There was very little identity as being Roman in the parts of the empire that Rome really cared about, so the rebels would only be more effective.
Romans would ban the gun like the Pope banned the crossbow. Rome as an empire would not survive, and Europe would fragment within a few decades of widespread adoption. It would keep the east German, though. Guns crush steppe tribes, so you can kiss the alavs, magyars, and bulgars goodbye, but the Germans would still have equivalent little shitty barbarian kingdoms.
