Imagine if John P, for example, actually went to Athens and looked up old Socs, and maybe asked him a few questions. As a result, Socs is running late and misses an appointment with his barber. As a result he does not say tot he barber the sarcastic things which, in this time-line, incensed the barber's soul and set him to reviling Socrates to everyone he met, ruining his reputation and forcing his trial.

By not offending the barber, Soc's reputation is spared and he eventually, instead of being tried for corrupting the young, is elected Governor of Athens, which he rules with such wisdom that the entirety of Greece prospers and flourishes, resulting in a stronger nation. The Socratic system of law inspires nations who learn of it, the Greeks build an empire of enlightenment, the Roman version never really gets much of a start.

AS a result Egyptian civilization continues uninvaded, the Irish prosper under their own rule using the Socratic model of government, America is settled by the Irish in 940 , and the white tribes who expand to North America learn peaceful coexistence with the indigenous Indians and preserve the buffalo, learn to manage their fisheries sensibly, and a fourth great simultaneous civilization grows up to share the planet contemporaneously with the Egyptian, Greek and Irish civilizations.

Ya never know what one little conversation will do, if it is the right conversation. What a damn shame John P does not speak Greek!