AHC: Instead of Eastern and Western Roman Empires, make another split work.

traminer

I normally don't wade in on topics on this site where I lack knowledge. But I feel lately I've seen loads of Rome / Byzantium threads popping up, which put this question into my head. I'd be interested in the thoughts of those who have knowledge in the area.

OTL, we got an Eastern Roman Empire and a Western one. They both lasted a while, changing as they went and dying different deaths. They gave us separate Orthodox and Catholic Churches that last until today.

Pick a time to have Rome branch off differently, in a way that preserves a different slice of Roman-ness in the part(s) of the empire not containing Rome itself. Ideally, just as we branched off between Catholic and Orthodox faiths, your split will also enable or advance differences of faith that linger to present day ATL.

What would make a Northern Roman Empire (capital: Lugdunum) with a stronger thread of syncretic Roman/indigenous religion end up as? How about a more druidically-infused Christian Church there, better able to reach British and Celtic peoples? Would the contrasts between these empires and their beliefs make Lutheranism unnecessary?

Or: posit a co-emperor setting up shop in the Holy Land, in search of purer religion, and ending up with a marginally-less-misnamed Holy Roman Empire (capital: Jerusalem?). Are there more or fewer crusades in this timeline? Is Judaism stronger?

Have more numerous followers of Pelagius migrate and segregate away from followers of Augustine, leading to a core of a rather different Rome... somewhere. Do you have a culture of industrious people focused on the virtue of good deeds and accomplishments contrasting themselves with Rome's indolence and laziness? Is this like the Northern European protestant self-image, a millennium earlier?

Or, better still, split Rome your own way, and tell us how today is different because of it.
 

Evil Crusader

The main difficulty is finding a suitable place. Rome was Rome (duh), yet was eventually phased out due to not being a good capital anymore; but the New Rome was specifically picked for its fantastic location. Of the provided ideas, only Jerusalem sorta kinda works. Lugdunum is too far North to have enough people and be able to be a major spiritual successor; Carthage has similar problems due to the gradual desertification of Africa.
Following out of curiosity.
 

HyperMuscularDemon

How about Aurelian failing? Considering that Aurelian made major efforts to reunite the Roman Empire in the disastrous latter part of the 3th century, if Aurelian dies earlier, then you could have different seceding parts of the Roman Empire survive as different post Roman states.
 
Zenevidas

Zenevidas

HyperMuscularDemon said:
How about Aurelian failing? Considering that Aurelian made major efforts to reunite the Roman Empire in the disastrous latter part of the 3th century, if Aurelian dies earlier, then you could have different seceding parts of the Roman Empire survive as different post Roman states.
Click to expand...
The Palmyrene Empire could survive way longer and start culturally changing
 

Kerney

I like the irony of the Western Romans being driven out of Italy, holding onto North Africa, Spain, and Sicily and the rest of the Islands. Their capital is Carthage.
 

Putnam

The problem is, an East-West split just made the most sense. The West had their own foreign threats in the form of the Germanic Migration (and eventually the Huns), whereas the East had the Persians.

You could change the official demarcation line, as actually happened quite a lot during the 4th Century, but the general split between an Eastern half and a Western Half was fairly natural.
 

Fabius Maximus

If we want an alternate split, maybe a tripartite division would be best. One third could have Gaul, Britain, and Spain; the second could have Italy, North Africa, and Illyria; and the third could have Greece, Egypt, and the East. This would create coherent states with defensible borders (which would be a problem with most other possible divisions), and each would be large enough to more or less stand on its own.
 
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