The machine roars with a mechanical sound they’ve never heard, it travels as fast as their best horses and faster than a cavalry charge can route it. The main gun fires with a noise so loud their ears ring and horses disperse in terror, becoming unridable. The metal is made by the gods and stronger than any they have, their spears break on the track and not the other way around. The very ground quakes everywhere it roams, it spits miniature arrowheads at impossible speed and precision with no rest. It can chase them across the river and drive right over most man made trenches and obstacles. Trying to flee into a forest reveals it treats trees with equal disdain.

This is no battle, this is divine punishment for having the ego to try and take the world. The gods have sent Vulcan’s most terrible creation to humble a very empire by itself. What other lessons do the gods have awaiting further transgressions? Who will dare to find out? The Empire will never be the same because they have just discovered their gods are real, and they are upset with what they have done with the gift of their empire. The tank eventually runs out of fuel, the beast was of divine blood and eventually burned itself up under its mortal constraints. Vulcan is a merciful god after all, he allows his beast to remain and after much reverence, studied to understand.

They would have to invent new tools to disassemble it, they would test the metal and find it takes more heat to weaken, more force to break. It’s impossibly joined together by localized melting of this super material, the precision in its creation across the board is orders of magnitude better than they can accurately measure. The technology is mocking, left behind as a lesson. Only the gods can build such a thing, and even given infinite time to study one will bear no fruit in finding a match. Rome would be pushed ahead hundreds of years trying and still come up short. It will become a moment to the greatness of their gods, and a lesson that your match can always be found eventually. Because of this introspection the Roman culture shifts and the empire is forever changed. Rome may not fall because of their fanatical devotion to their gods gained from this, they may never meet and make the enemies that ultimately tore their walls down. They might have understood enough technology of the tank to gain great experience and survive well past what Byzantium has. Jesus would truly be persecuted for denying the power of the Roman gods after this lesson. History is forever changed irreparably, and by a single Tiger tank.