WI Constantine in Alexandria

This is entirely out of my league, but what-if Constantine the Great rather than dividing the Roman Empire into two and creating a new capital out of Byzantium, divided the Empire and set up court and capital in Alexandria?

One thing I'm thinking about is - and its fairly filled with large holes - Constantine moves to Alexandria and an Alexandrian, rather than Byzantine, Empire is formed. The division of the Empire goes the same, just that capital cities are different. Byzantium still becomes a major city because of its location, but the great Cathedral of Agia Sofia is in Alexandria. I guess then Eastern Orthodoxy would be predominately similar to Coptic Christianity.

The end product I'm toying with would be Africa being predominately Christian, and fairly similar to contemporary Europe. In the mean time pagen Europe continues on its way until the rise of Islam and is conquered and converts. The Alexandrian Empire rises and falls and is split apart into various nations that fight against each other for centuries. The new countries there eventually go through a 'Dark Ages' and Renaissance and finally explore out onto the Atlantic. Europe, after decades of enlightened Ottoman rule finally stagnates and slows down. Perhaps Europe eventually has some religious war that divides it into Shite and Sunni camps.

This is a fairly straight forward Turtledovian ATL, simply transpose the history of one region onto another (ie the Great War series).
 
You'll have to squeeze things a bit to fit...

Alexandria was a center of Athanasian and monophysite Christianity, so Constantine and his dynatsy very likely lean in those directions. That may be uised top explaion an earlier schism with the West (which, while unclear as to what it was, was decidedly not monophysite and, without the power of Constantinople projecting orthodoxy, might well turn Arian). An imperial capital in Alexandria would also have a different flavour in terms of deconomy and administration, more bureaucratic, more self-centered and more agricultural. Of course if the emperors need to use the loval population to recruit soldiers, the voice of the Copts will be more clearly heard in affairs of the state.

THe West is already Christian by the 300s, though hardly very much so, and unless you want to posit an earlier and more massive barbarian influx it will likely stay so. You would have to decide the fate of Christianity in Italy and Spain, but I doubt it will go away and die. It may lose its political cohesion and become an 'Adelskirche', but more likely it continues in close contact with a dominant Alexandrian church. Unless the West is Arian, of course.

Islam will be a problem. The natural direction of expansion is into Syria and Palestine, and that puts them very close to Alexandria. Any military weakening of the Empire puts the capital at risk. Alexandria is not very well defensible. However, if it works the Islamic expansion could go through Persia and Central Asia, Asia Minor (old Christian heartland and likely to retain a strong Christian minority) and the Balkans. Northern Europe would probably remain a rather distant and unpopular part of the Dar al-Islam, though a German Babur might well build up his own Mughal dynasty in Christian Italy. However, I would expect Islam's main thrust into Central Asia, with a corresponding evangelising effort by the Alexandrians into Africa. Given their ties across the Indian Ocean. I could also imagine an Alexandrian-Indian alliance against the Caliphs.

What would happen in the interior of Africa? Would the Sahel tribes go Christian and rule the peoples of the jungle belt on behalf of the pantokrator ton Rhomaion? Will Timbuktu be dominated by the cupolas of Orthodox churches? Will brave evangelising Fulani eventually meet the Bantu peoples?

Cool idea...
 
carlton_bach said:
Alexandria was a center of Athanasian and monophysite Christianity, so Constantine and his dynatsy very likely lean in those directions.
Athanasian christianity is orthodox (maintstream) christianity, isn't it?
 
Mohammadski

Given a Monphyisite Orthodox Eygpt & West, and a Coptic Arysissian Axum Empire to its South. There probally won't be a Arab, Mohammad Bugging the Christian officails till they chase him away. Your best bet would be Some one rising up in the Fragmented Europe, using the Nordic Myths to retell the Christian story. ""There is no God But Wodin Allfather-- and Baldur the White, is his Son""
 
Constantine didn't splite the empire in two, he united the entire shebang under him - he just moved the Capital to Constantinople. If he had moved it to Alexandria, the empire would have disappeared much sooner; Alexandria is not defensible, and it was the survival of Constantinople behind its well-nigh impregnable defenses, and thus the preservation of the bureacracy and tax-collection expertise that allowed the empire to survive so many travails. It would also have caused an immediate split with the West or a horrible amount of sectarian bloodshed due to the non-Orthodox majority in Egypt.
 
Well, your absolutely right about the indefensibility of Alexandria. I was thinking that a massive series of fortified positions and walls could be built to the east, perhaps right where the Suez Canal is. A walled city would be built at OTL Port Said, Ismalia and Suez and connected by walls (nothing as massive as OTL Constantinople's). Perhaps one would even consider strengthening this defensive line by building a moat that will extend its entire length.

Oh, well a passing thought.
 
Red Sea Trade

An empire centered at Alexandria would have more interest in the Indian Ocean. It would be psychologically much closer to the East than a Mediterranean city like Rome, Istanbul, Venice, Sevastopol, or Valetta.
Gibralter would be tuned in more to the North Sea and the African coastline. So the empire splits East/West to Alexandria and Gibralter? A Sevastopol third site on the silk road and the Volga/Don crossing?
 
Why on earth would he want to go to Alexandria? From Byzantium you can keep an eye on the Rhine/Danube and the Euphrates frontiers, the two most likely source of problems. By contrast, Alexandria is a strategic dead end.
 
DominusNovus said:
Athanasian christianity is orthodox (maintstream) christianity, isn't it?

Irt's at the root of it. All modern mainstream Christian churches are Athanasian. Athanasios opf Alexandria defended the position that Christ's nature was wholly divine and indivisible from God against the Arian position that Christ was either of a lesser divine nature - the father being greater than the son - or, in an extreme position, only partook of the father's divine nature.

After Arianism was ousted as a mainstrem position, the Athanasians proceeded to disagree on whether Christ had one indivisible nature or two, and whether it was part-human and part-divine, all divine, or whether he had a human and a divine nature simultaneously. This gets really complicated, but IIRC the official solution is that that Christ has one nature which is simultaneously entirely human and entirely divine, and that he is an integral part of a triune deity no lesser than any other part.

Why anyone would want to kill someone over this is beyond me...
 
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