One of the things that had bothered me about this story was that, to me at least, they seemed too 'tame', and did not reflect the Romans of history. If you look at my thread on the Roman way you will notice that while there are some similarities to modern virtues, there are many that are not. So in this version the Romans are a bit more vicious and are totally ruthless.
The second reason for this rewrite is to bring the Discovery tale into the new direction canon has taken in the later stories of this saga. One of the major items of revision is the amount of time the Romans have been in space and their level of technology vis-a-vié the Terrans.
The third, and most important change is to introduce the Terrans a few years after their meeting of the Atheri and just before Disclosure to the populace in general. I hope to show, in my opinion, the problems human society would have with the Disclosure of the fact there is alien life out there.
I hope you all enjoy this rewrite as much as I have had in doing it!