AHC: Roman Empire Collapse before 180 CE
- Thread starter Gog (♀)
- Start date
It is hard to let the roman empire collapse during the 3rd century crisis, as we discussed in this other thread. It would be also hard but possible to let it collapse during Augustus' reign.
But you are asking for a collapse of the empire at the peak and wonder why you don't get that many answers?
But you are asking for a collapse of the empire at the peak and wonder why you don't get that many answers?
As it was said to have the Empire collapse in it's Golden Age is highly unlikely.
But if you really really want it you may try this scenario:
in our TL Domitian had serious problems in Dacia and at the same time he desperately needed his legions along the Rhine to put down the revolt of Lucius Antonius Saturninus, the Roman governor of Germania Superior who had allied with the Marcomanni, Quadi and Sarmatian Yazgulyams against Domitian.
In OTL Domitian seemed to be saved in 88 A.D. by Tettius Julianus who defeated the Dacians and they sued for peace.
So the POD is -
- the army of Tettius Julianus is totally annihilated by Decebalus (like Varrus in Teutoburg forest).
... and the hell breaks loose actually -
- the victorious Dacian Empire occupies the Balkans and seriously threatens Italy and the city of Rome, Domitian recruits slaves into his army and desperately seeks for money to pay off Decebalus.
The Romans kill each other in a Civil war, in addition to the usurper on the Rhine the Eastern Roman army along the Parthian border proclaims another emperor; the Germanic tribes and the Sarmatians smell blood like sharks and tear apart the provinces.
Actually the chain reaction may follow when worst comes to worst.
TinyTartar
Banned
I guess a good start would be for Gaius Marius to be killed by political rivals before enacting his reforms of the military. This leads to an extended war against the Cimbri and Teutons that further drains Roman manpower and lasts longer and is more destructive.
Couple that with much of the same from that point up until the 60s and 50s BC when the amount of jobless plebs and the lack of reformers in the Senate, with Caesar never rising to the forefront, leads eventually to some form of military reform in order to stave off social rebellion, but no land reform, and eventually, an overwhelming amount of slaves in Italy, along with an overwhelming amount of landless, jobless, plebs.
Eventually, a social rebellion, likely in the 30s BC, along with multiple slave revolts, brings down the Senate. It is replaced with a bunch of warring factions claiming Dictatorial Titles led by ambitious nobles who sided with the rebels. This, combined with marauding bands of slave rebels throughout Italy, leads to sever depopulation and outright poverty as nobody can work the land without being swept up by war. Roman provincial authority slowly collapses abroad into nothingness, and seeing as there was no conquest of Gaul, and no conquest of much of the Near East by Pompey, who was killed in the heavy Roman defeat to Mithridates of Pontus, who crushed Roman Asia, the Republic falls into anarchy at home and withers away abroad. Further Germanic incursions into Italy occur while the warring factions continue to claw at each other over the remnants of the Republic in Italy.
The remnants of the Roman upper class reestablish themselves in Africa and start anew there with a new republic, albeit a very weak one.
EDIT: I didn't see the after Augustus part. My bad.
Couple that with much of the same from that point up until the 60s and 50s BC when the amount of jobless plebs and the lack of reformers in the Senate, with Caesar never rising to the forefront, leads eventually to some form of military reform in order to stave off social rebellion, but no land reform, and eventually, an overwhelming amount of slaves in Italy, along with an overwhelming amount of landless, jobless, plebs.
Eventually, a social rebellion, likely in the 30s BC, along with multiple slave revolts, brings down the Senate. It is replaced with a bunch of warring factions claiming Dictatorial Titles led by ambitious nobles who sided with the rebels. This, combined with marauding bands of slave rebels throughout Italy, leads to sever depopulation and outright poverty as nobody can work the land without being swept up by war. Roman provincial authority slowly collapses abroad into nothingness, and seeing as there was no conquest of Gaul, and no conquest of much of the Near East by Pompey, who was killed in the heavy Roman defeat to Mithridates of Pontus, who crushed Roman Asia, the Republic falls into anarchy at home and withers away abroad. Further Germanic incursions into Italy occur while the warring factions continue to claw at each other over the remnants of the Republic in Italy.
The remnants of the Roman upper class reestablish themselves in Africa and start anew there with a new republic, albeit a very weak one.
EDIT: I didn't see the after Augustus part. My bad.