I was browsing through the many and various timelines where the roman empire survives and becomes a globe spanning empire. And so far i've only found timelines where the empire conquers everything before 500 or variations of that. So I figured that i''d try to make , what I perceive as a sensible alternative timeline. this is my first timeline so be gentle 
Pod: 176 Commodus is badly hurt in Athena. the wound causes excruciating pain and renders him utterly mad. For instance, he makes a slave a general over a pack of potatoes.
181 Commodus is made Emperor. It quickly becomes apparent that he is completely mad.
184 Commodus is killed by praetorians.
184 Pescennius niger becomes Empereor. he spends far too much money and goes to an extremely costly campaign to Parthia.
192 victory over Parthans. Pescennius builds thirty extravagant castles around the empire, most of them concentrated in Gaul or on the German front.
195 Pescennius is killed, Severius Septimus becomes emperor.
202 Septimus killed, Maximus Severus becomes emperor.
202-223 maximus decreases the centralization by giving governors more freedom to govern and protect their provinces the way they see fit.
212 -217maximus sends a large army against the Germans. the Germans defend their borders and the campaign ends in a stalemate. several tribes unite in emergency under one king to defend their land.
217. the Alamans are the main reason for the stalemate on the German front, they break through the roman ranks until they are defated as they are marching into Italy.
223 a civil war erupts as the governors treat their provinces as their own personal kingdoms and pursue vendettas and claim land from each other.
223-227 centralization fails completely and Maximus is shown to have no power after his reforms. he is forced to put the army under the senate which establishes the rank of a general who controls all the imperial armies for the senate. eventually peace is restored but the emperor loses much of the trust of the people.
228 a few more Germanic tribes are united by a powerful king who won a great victory over the romans.
229-233: Maximus and the senate reorganize the empire. the senate has greater control over most internal matters, while the emperor has the final say, the emperor can go to war if he pleases but the senate controls the army. greatrer centralization than ever before.
231 "king of Germany" attacks and claims considerable land until defeated.
232 Germany is attacked by two legions who are almost destroyed.
234 Maximus leads several legions against the "king" and wins. a ceasefire is negotiated and a ten years peace on the German front ensues.
244 Maximus dies by natural causes, his son septimus becomes emperor. the Germans attack several of their castles, but fail in all but one instances.
245 Persians insult the romans and attack them in the ensuing crisis.
246 Septimus does nothing and the senate forces him to attack the Persians.
246-253war with Persia.
247 Septimus is killed , a general named Postumus becomes emperor.
253 postumus throws the senate out of the city. he becomes hugely popular with the people becaus of his victorius past and his great addiction to gladiator fights.
253 a great plaque strikes the empire.
254 the senate gathers a a large force , attacks Rome and defeats Postumus.
254 the senate makes its general an emperor after the citizens demand it. the genral is named augustus and has very limited power.
254-287 the "reign" of Austus is a peaceful and prosperous one ,relatively speaking. he begins as a puppet emperor but becomes directly involved after a while and shows great leadership.
255 the Goths and Alamans invade almost simultaneously.
255 the Alamans invade Italy and appear unstoppable. Goths trample through Germanic and roman territory on their way to Gaul, the German king seizes the opportunity and attacks a castle, but is narrowly defeated. the German kingdom crumbles.
256 the Gothic onslaught is stopped at Lorraine and the Alamans are stopped at medolanium
260 unusually tough battles in Germania lead to Augustus building several massive castles at the border and in gaul.
267 Augustus forms special cavalry divisions based on the Alaman tactics. they become the police of the roads and despite being not much more than robbers they get a knight-like reputation.
269-275the grandson of the German king becomes the leader of his tribe and starts to unite the Germanic tribes in a peace treaty. they will no longer fight each other unless by battle of champions, they will co-ordinate their attacks on roman land, and help if necessary. raids become more and more precise and effective.
269 a roman galley is lost at sea when it si trying to sail north of Scotland. they finally make it back to civilization but they claim to have seen an island rise from the ocean and the mythical island is dubbed Atlantis. despite the interest the story gets no one attempts to find it as the waters beyond Scotland are far to treacherous for most.
271 the senate tries to have Augustus killed because he is believed to be becoming to powerful.
271 the summer of knifes. more than half of the senate is killed and many try to kill Augustus.
272 Augustus reorganizes the senate and its powers. the senate is in charge of most internal day to day business. the entire army is under the emperors direct control but war cannot be declared nor organized without a senate voted war council.
270s raids in roman territory become more frequent and stronger.
276 the final castle is finished and Augustus cavalry units make a difference at the borders.
283great fire burns a great part of Rome, Christians are blamed for the fire and Christians are enslaved in greater number than ever before.
285 Augustus promotes games to be held throughout the empire where Christians are slaughtered.
287 Augustus dies, his son Marcus takes over.
287 Marcus gathers a large army that has the explicit purpose of conquering Germany. The main reason for the gathering is to get more slaves but the Romans are slowly running out of slaves.
289-298 the Germanian campaign, the Germans, now united under the Treaty defend their lands vigorously with the help of many other tribes including the Goths. Without the help of the castles the new lands prove difficult to hold on to. Claudus Germanicu wins many battles against the Germans and becomes famous throughout the empire.
294 marcus has the entire detailed history of the empire written and the scrolls fill up a temple.
298 the war doesn't have the desired effect on the slave situations and a shortage on slaves becomes troublesome slave uprisings are beaten down. Claudus secretly becomes Christian.
301 Marcus sends Claudus to attack Persia.
301-305the Persian sand war ends with the roman siege of Susa.
309-324 the Britain crisis, an uprising in Britannia shakes the empire until Claudus son Decimus is sent and beats the entire island to submission in a seven year long war including Scotland.
314 Claudus Germanicus dies from a plaque in Byzans.
324-327decimus becomes enormously wealthy from his fathers wealth and from his victories in the Britannia crisis.
329 the “bloodless” coup, 25000 people die in the streets of Rome as Decimus seizes power from Marcus. Decimus kills everyone in Marcus's family, makes Christianity state religion and makes a deal with the senators to keep their loyalty. Three generals rise against his power.
330 Decimus bribes the generals and avoids civil war.
338 the Senate holds a holds a council for the church to decide upon many matters which are not clear in the new religion. It is decided that to pacify the masses that Christ led a “bloodless coup” similar to Decimus against Jupiter and every other pantheon. Furthermore the emperor is the messenger of Christ on earth and a new emperor requires the blessings of the senate and the church. Otherwise the message of Christ is unchanged.
338-386 not everyone likes this new theological world order and many secret societies spring up, plotting how to remove the emperor, they slowly wither until the largest one is raided and destroyed in 386
339 Decimus forms a citizen police in Rome to uphold the law. It takes the police several decades to get the respect itr requires but it becomes a model for are later police forces in army Roman cities.
341 Decimus has new citizenship laws installed. Roman citizens cannot be enslaved because of their debts or any other crime. Roman citizenship is available to anyone who serves for five years in the military.
344-351 Decimus invades the west coast of Africa and Carpathia.
346 Decimus is almost killed in what is known as the trinity conspiracy by religious philosophers and engineers , members of the trinity the larges secret society. Decimus bans all new technology and new thought, this leads to uproar amongst the intellectual elite and is almost impossible to enforce.
349-377 the Germanic crisis. the Goths invade , great German force coming in its wake along with many other tribes. The unprecedented overwhelming force is too much for the initial border legions to withstand. an ambitious German general come pretty close to raiding Rome. Revolts among the Gallic and Hispanic populace paralyze the western half of the empire.
366- 373 the Persian war of reclamation. The Persians invade their old provinces and with the romans increasingly occupied on the western front victory comes easy After several skirmishes the romans and the Persians negotiate a peace agreement. Many points of the agreement are kept secret from the general populace and the deal gains the nickname peace pact under roses or just the rose pact.
365 Decimus becomes sure that the reason for his losses are the many federati there are in his army. He promises reform after the war.
371 Decimus dies in a battle for Mediolanum, the senate decrees that his son may become emperor in these dire times. Regulus Calva Germanicus becomes emperor and leads romans to victory. After the war he reforms the army and allows the implementation of new technology.
379 Regulus reforms. Regulus changes the structure of the military and its equipment. He reforms the army as a western and eastern legions and general legions. The western legions are equipped and trained to deal with the western barbarians, the eastern legions are trained to defend against Persians and “civilized” enemies. The general legions are fit to travel around the empire for invasions, defense and to beat down revolts.
380-409 Regulus gives money to many new invention to promote them and their implementations. The most important of them is the heavy plough which is invented in Sicily and quickly spreads to the rest of Italy thanks to the emperor. With the many new and efficient inventions a minor industrial revolution makes mass production easy and cheap.
383-390 "the walls of the world" massive walls are built on the barbarian fronts around Carpathia. Castles are built in the east. Visigoths invade and are defeated in a number of skirmishes proving the Regulus reforms to be a success.
409 Regulus dies and Decimus the second becomes emperor. The reign of the bad emperors begin
309-442 ”the reign of the bad emperors” by improving agriculture with the heavy plough and making Rome finally independent on imported grain from far away the common farmer working on the lands of the nobles become richer than ever before. As Decimus the second grows weary of the senate he attempts to kill them all at once but one quarter of the senate survives and disappears into the countryside where they have allies among the farmers. A new civil war erupts
414-420 the civil war razes Medolianum and Rome loses control of the empire as Italy becomes a battlefield. The rose pact holds but the barbarians raid even further into roman territory.
421 Camillus Capito Carvo general over the senate army becomes an emperor and becomes a puppet for the senate. the senate decrees that all lands in italy will become free from the reign of noblemen, allowing all farmers to own their own land completely. the noblemen are furious and flee to Byzantium and form the order of the eagle. the senate now governed almost entirely by plebeian elitists free many slaves, believing that free farmers will cultivate the land completely by themselves.
422 the order of the eagle masses an enormous army and declare the eastern half of the empire to be under its rule. the rose pact is maintained by enormous bribes while the eastern armies rally under their cause.
425 the order of the eagle suddenly has to deal with massive slave revolts after news of the free slaves in italy. while Italy itself is beset by plaques and famine, leading indirectly to the deaths of massive amounts of slaves.
427 the western front lines finally buckle and Germans,vandals Suebans and Burgundians charge through and raid the Gallic countryside, Italy is kept safe by armies raised to fight against the eagle order. Africa is raided by the vandals but they are defeated in the siege of Carthage. one legion under general Flavius Aetius resides in one of the last remaining castles and protects a large portion of Gaul by his very effective cavalry division.
425-441 Rome is taken four times during the time and changes emperor with alarming an frequency. Camillus Capito Carvo kills the senate and achieves complete control over the city. he is killed by his praetorians who appoint their captain an emperor. the mob of Rome revolts and appoints a merchant to be the king. the order of the eagle lands in italy and marches down to Rome and half-burns the city to the ground. the order itself begins to tear itself apart when they argue over who should be emperor and whether the senate should be brought back. in the eastern half of the empire revolts begin to tear the countryside apart and several governors begin to employ Persian military as mercenaries. Ravenna is razed down in a battle between the imperati and the senati, the ones who would like to restore the senate and others who want to appoint an emperor. a pope is voted to control the church he becomes a semi emperor asking the people to calm down.
435-436 the Hunnic horde is largely stopped by the Germans and their truce master Alrec, the huns defeat them in the end and invade roman territory
427-440 Flavius keeps his castle and refuses to return to Rome when the civil war heats up. he plays his enemies against each other, employs large quantities of Germans and Burgundians to protect the borders. he begins to get a legendary status with the populace of Gaul Hispanic and Britannica as he declares "his lands" fto b under true rule and protection. in 437 he defeats Attila in the "battle of the last castle" or battle of trier. when the lands appear calm he leaves for Italy with three legions in an attempt to settle things down.
441 the battle of Genua Flavius defeats the remains of the original senate army and takes their gold. stories have been told about the victories and benevolence of Flavius and he is hailed as the conquering hero.
442 Flavius defeats the order of the eagle and appoints himself emperor with a promise to bring back the senate. he promises military help to any governor who wishes promising to bring stability to the empire. he brings back slavery which had been cut back in the civil war and says that the empire will fall back unto more traditional times now. all barbarians who settled in their land are promised citizenship through two years of military service.
442-453 minor uprisings and sects are quelled as Flavius grabs complete control over the empire and restores the senate, this time the senate has officials who come from all provinces of the empire, and they run the day to day business. a near perfect post service is established and fast communications bring the empire closer together. the German fronts begin to quiet as the Germans increasingly raid the northern Slav villages and sell to Rome which needs the labor immensely. the Germans after uniting against the many and various hordes that rode through their lands begin to hold fast to that unity after the truce master appoints himself king over the German tribes. their land covers much of the northern roman border and slowly expands to the north.
457-460 flavius becomes curious about the world around the empire and sends expeditions to the east, the south and the north, and another to find the island Atlantis that a roman galley supposedly saw some two hundred years ago.
458-500 the minor industrial revolution of Regulus is largely revived by a small and primitive steam engine which is brought to the rest of the empire along with the heavy plough. industry and trade booms and roman manufactured goods become the main bargaining chip in the expeditions to the east.
461 after continuous failures and sunken ships the romans finally reach the island called Atlantis. closer examination reveals patches of fertile lands and natural strongholds. in the next hundred years the island was slowly populated mostly by monks, reclusive philosophers and roman/Gaul farmers. this pushes the navy engineers to rebuild the galleys over the course of the decades. roman ships become increasingly Nordic in appearance.
463 after a long and treacherous journey, the roman "explorers" reach china while it is still in civil war. even still trade routes are established with the increasingly sophisticated roman goods and the silk trades.
469-473 a massive slave uprising cripples Asia minor and forces Flavian to look at the fact that slaves are becoming so many in numbers that they are almost impossible to contain. Flavius however does nothing as he is intent on bringing Rome to its "roots".
472-477 Flavius leads an army into Africa, adding enormous tracks of land to the empire, he stops when reaching the middle of the continent, and was quoted saying: the roman will is great, but not endless.
477-485 through a series of campaigns the empire is extended to all of Arabia, Scotland and Ireland.
479 the great games are held for the first time in Rome. A great coliseum is built around them. it is a competition in the spirit of the Olympic games with athletes coming from all over the empire. it was henceforth held every ten years.
486 Flavius dies in a freak horse chariot incident. his adopted son , Magnum Carvo Aetius. he sees that with increasing productivity that slavery is slowly becoming obsolete. he begins reforms that make ti easier to a slave to get his freedom and impossible to make a roman citizen into a slave.
493 raids are becoming rarer and rarer on the German front while the "wall of the world" is raided increasingly more from the endless supply of nomadic hordes.
500 magnum Carvo Aetius dies, his adopted son takes over and continues his fathers attempt to make slavery more practical in cohesion with industry.
500s-810s Metallurgy improves vastly as industry requires better and better metal to build better factories.
560s-590s the rose wars, increasing tariffs by the Persians on the silk road force the romans to attack. after a long war the Persians are defeated and Rome suddenly shares borders with india.
587-639 reign of Flavian Magna "the mad builder" using the money gained from the rose wars Flavian Magna reconstructs Rome and several key cities of the empire. seven massive statues of Ceasar, Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Regulus, Flavius Aetius,Decimus and Flavian magma are built on the seven hills of Rome. statues, Colosseum, towers and large buildings become the norm in all major roman cities, with Rome gaining the nickname city of giants, because of the statues. these buildings however almost bankrupt the empire.
607Germania becomes a vassal of Rome. all nations surrounding the Mediterranean have become almost completely Romanized.
632 Mohammads great grandfather is killed in the wars over arabia so islam is never established.
660s roman explorers discover Greenland. an outpost is established to hunt the mystical whales that inhabit the sea around them.
680s America is discovered by going from Greenland to northern Canada. America is named Europa Novus.
700s the "old empire" of Gaul, Britan, Hispania, Greece, Asia minor and northern Africa is almost completely romanized.
740s increasing population problem because of greater living standards, increased production and general peace lead to massive exodus of romans to Europa Novus. printing press is discovered revolutionizing the way information travels through the empire shaking its foundations .
770s a large scale civil war erupts and the Flavian dynasty is toppled. the senate grows in power and the emperor becomes more ornamental. Rome becomes a federation with seven senates governing seven parts of the empire with one high senate operating in Rome along with the emperor.
790s the roman immigrants form eleven colonies on the east coast largely independent from Rome.
Excuses and clarifications
first of all I know there are a few asb's in this timeline, especially in the later half. I know that the romans had no practical way of finding Iceland(Atlantis is Iceland). But the fact is that from the north coast of Scotland there isn't that long a way to Iceland. Also the vikings found the country by similar accidents so at lest tome I think this is perfectly plausible.
Although it would appear that way this timeline is not ”let the roman empire continue so Flavian Aetius can take over” in fact when I began this timeline I had almost no idea who this guy was. It wasn't until I was knee deep in the civil war that I realized that I needed a hero to get things right. The roman protectorates during that era were mostly roman in name only as several new tribes settled in those provinces regardless whether or not Flavius thougt the lands were under his control.
Also regarding the minor industrial revolution. I'm not talking about full blown steam engines. its more of a more efficient way to make and build things. The heavy plough is a good example of a tool that revolutionizes the world without making machines. Imagine the romans knowing the basis for steam engines but not having the metallurgy for it.
Pod: 176 Commodus is badly hurt in Athena. the wound causes excruciating pain and renders him utterly mad. For instance, he makes a slave a general over a pack of potatoes.
181 Commodus is made Emperor. It quickly becomes apparent that he is completely mad.
184 Commodus is killed by praetorians.
184 Pescennius niger becomes Empereor. he spends far too much money and goes to an extremely costly campaign to Parthia.
192 victory over Parthans. Pescennius builds thirty extravagant castles around the empire, most of them concentrated in Gaul or on the German front.
195 Pescennius is killed, Severius Septimus becomes emperor.
202 Septimus killed, Maximus Severus becomes emperor.
202-223 maximus decreases the centralization by giving governors more freedom to govern and protect their provinces the way they see fit.
212 -217maximus sends a large army against the Germans. the Germans defend their borders and the campaign ends in a stalemate. several tribes unite in emergency under one king to defend their land.
217. the Alamans are the main reason for the stalemate on the German front, they break through the roman ranks until they are defated as they are marching into Italy.
223 a civil war erupts as the governors treat their provinces as their own personal kingdoms and pursue vendettas and claim land from each other.
223-227 centralization fails completely and Maximus is shown to have no power after his reforms. he is forced to put the army under the senate which establishes the rank of a general who controls all the imperial armies for the senate. eventually peace is restored but the emperor loses much of the trust of the people.
228 a few more Germanic tribes are united by a powerful king who won a great victory over the romans.
229-233: Maximus and the senate reorganize the empire. the senate has greater control over most internal matters, while the emperor has the final say, the emperor can go to war if he pleases but the senate controls the army. greatrer centralization than ever before.
231 "king of Germany" attacks and claims considerable land until defeated.
232 Germany is attacked by two legions who are almost destroyed.
234 Maximus leads several legions against the "king" and wins. a ceasefire is negotiated and a ten years peace on the German front ensues.
244 Maximus dies by natural causes, his son septimus becomes emperor. the Germans attack several of their castles, but fail in all but one instances.
245 Persians insult the romans and attack them in the ensuing crisis.
246 Septimus does nothing and the senate forces him to attack the Persians.
246-253war with Persia.
247 Septimus is killed , a general named Postumus becomes emperor.
253 postumus throws the senate out of the city. he becomes hugely popular with the people becaus of his victorius past and his great addiction to gladiator fights.
253 a great plaque strikes the empire.
254 the senate gathers a a large force , attacks Rome and defeats Postumus.
254 the senate makes its general an emperor after the citizens demand it. the genral is named augustus and has very limited power.
254-287 the "reign" of Austus is a peaceful and prosperous one ,relatively speaking. he begins as a puppet emperor but becomes directly involved after a while and shows great leadership.
255 the Goths and Alamans invade almost simultaneously.
255 the Alamans invade Italy and appear unstoppable. Goths trample through Germanic and roman territory on their way to Gaul, the German king seizes the opportunity and attacks a castle, but is narrowly defeated. the German kingdom crumbles.
256 the Gothic onslaught is stopped at Lorraine and the Alamans are stopped at medolanium
260 unusually tough battles in Germania lead to Augustus building several massive castles at the border and in gaul.
267 Augustus forms special cavalry divisions based on the Alaman tactics. they become the police of the roads and despite being not much more than robbers they get a knight-like reputation.
269-275the grandson of the German king becomes the leader of his tribe and starts to unite the Germanic tribes in a peace treaty. they will no longer fight each other unless by battle of champions, they will co-ordinate their attacks on roman land, and help if necessary. raids become more and more precise and effective.
269 a roman galley is lost at sea when it si trying to sail north of Scotland. they finally make it back to civilization but they claim to have seen an island rise from the ocean and the mythical island is dubbed Atlantis. despite the interest the story gets no one attempts to find it as the waters beyond Scotland are far to treacherous for most.
271 the senate tries to have Augustus killed because he is believed to be becoming to powerful.
271 the summer of knifes. more than half of the senate is killed and many try to kill Augustus.
272 Augustus reorganizes the senate and its powers. the senate is in charge of most internal day to day business. the entire army is under the emperors direct control but war cannot be declared nor organized without a senate voted war council.
270s raids in roman territory become more frequent and stronger.
276 the final castle is finished and Augustus cavalry units make a difference at the borders.
283great fire burns a great part of Rome, Christians are blamed for the fire and Christians are enslaved in greater number than ever before.
285 Augustus promotes games to be held throughout the empire where Christians are slaughtered.
287 Augustus dies, his son Marcus takes over.
287 Marcus gathers a large army that has the explicit purpose of conquering Germany. The main reason for the gathering is to get more slaves but the Romans are slowly running out of slaves.
289-298 the Germanian campaign, the Germans, now united under the Treaty defend their lands vigorously with the help of many other tribes including the Goths. Without the help of the castles the new lands prove difficult to hold on to. Claudus Germanicu wins many battles against the Germans and becomes famous throughout the empire.
294 marcus has the entire detailed history of the empire written and the scrolls fill up a temple.
298 the war doesn't have the desired effect on the slave situations and a shortage on slaves becomes troublesome slave uprisings are beaten down. Claudus secretly becomes Christian.
301 Marcus sends Claudus to attack Persia.
301-305the Persian sand war ends with the roman siege of Susa.
309-324 the Britain crisis, an uprising in Britannia shakes the empire until Claudus son Decimus is sent and beats the entire island to submission in a seven year long war including Scotland.
314 Claudus Germanicus dies from a plaque in Byzans.
324-327decimus becomes enormously wealthy from his fathers wealth and from his victories in the Britannia crisis.
329 the “bloodless” coup, 25000 people die in the streets of Rome as Decimus seizes power from Marcus. Decimus kills everyone in Marcus's family, makes Christianity state religion and makes a deal with the senators to keep their loyalty. Three generals rise against his power.
330 Decimus bribes the generals and avoids civil war.
338 the Senate holds a holds a council for the church to decide upon many matters which are not clear in the new religion. It is decided that to pacify the masses that Christ led a “bloodless coup” similar to Decimus against Jupiter and every other pantheon. Furthermore the emperor is the messenger of Christ on earth and a new emperor requires the blessings of the senate and the church. Otherwise the message of Christ is unchanged.
338-386 not everyone likes this new theological world order and many secret societies spring up, plotting how to remove the emperor, they slowly wither until the largest one is raided and destroyed in 386
339 Decimus forms a citizen police in Rome to uphold the law. It takes the police several decades to get the respect itr requires but it becomes a model for are later police forces in army Roman cities.
341 Decimus has new citizenship laws installed. Roman citizens cannot be enslaved because of their debts or any other crime. Roman citizenship is available to anyone who serves for five years in the military.
344-351 Decimus invades the west coast of Africa and Carpathia.
346 Decimus is almost killed in what is known as the trinity conspiracy by religious philosophers and engineers , members of the trinity the larges secret society. Decimus bans all new technology and new thought, this leads to uproar amongst the intellectual elite and is almost impossible to enforce.
349-377 the Germanic crisis. the Goths invade , great German force coming in its wake along with many other tribes. The unprecedented overwhelming force is too much for the initial border legions to withstand. an ambitious German general come pretty close to raiding Rome. Revolts among the Gallic and Hispanic populace paralyze the western half of the empire.
366- 373 the Persian war of reclamation. The Persians invade their old provinces and with the romans increasingly occupied on the western front victory comes easy After several skirmishes the romans and the Persians negotiate a peace agreement. Many points of the agreement are kept secret from the general populace and the deal gains the nickname peace pact under roses or just the rose pact.
365 Decimus becomes sure that the reason for his losses are the many federati there are in his army. He promises reform after the war.
371 Decimus dies in a battle for Mediolanum, the senate decrees that his son may become emperor in these dire times. Regulus Calva Germanicus becomes emperor and leads romans to victory. After the war he reforms the army and allows the implementation of new technology.
379 Regulus reforms. Regulus changes the structure of the military and its equipment. He reforms the army as a western and eastern legions and general legions. The western legions are equipped and trained to deal with the western barbarians, the eastern legions are trained to defend against Persians and “civilized” enemies. The general legions are fit to travel around the empire for invasions, defense and to beat down revolts.
380-409 Regulus gives money to many new invention to promote them and their implementations. The most important of them is the heavy plough which is invented in Sicily and quickly spreads to the rest of Italy thanks to the emperor. With the many new and efficient inventions a minor industrial revolution makes mass production easy and cheap.
383-390 "the walls of the world" massive walls are built on the barbarian fronts around Carpathia. Castles are built in the east. Visigoths invade and are defeated in a number of skirmishes proving the Regulus reforms to be a success.
409 Regulus dies and Decimus the second becomes emperor. The reign of the bad emperors begin
309-442 ”the reign of the bad emperors” by improving agriculture with the heavy plough and making Rome finally independent on imported grain from far away the common farmer working on the lands of the nobles become richer than ever before. As Decimus the second grows weary of the senate he attempts to kill them all at once but one quarter of the senate survives and disappears into the countryside where they have allies among the farmers. A new civil war erupts
414-420 the civil war razes Medolianum and Rome loses control of the empire as Italy becomes a battlefield. The rose pact holds but the barbarians raid even further into roman territory.
421 Camillus Capito Carvo general over the senate army becomes an emperor and becomes a puppet for the senate. the senate decrees that all lands in italy will become free from the reign of noblemen, allowing all farmers to own their own land completely. the noblemen are furious and flee to Byzantium and form the order of the eagle. the senate now governed almost entirely by plebeian elitists free many slaves, believing that free farmers will cultivate the land completely by themselves.
422 the order of the eagle masses an enormous army and declare the eastern half of the empire to be under its rule. the rose pact is maintained by enormous bribes while the eastern armies rally under their cause.
425 the order of the eagle suddenly has to deal with massive slave revolts after news of the free slaves in italy. while Italy itself is beset by plaques and famine, leading indirectly to the deaths of massive amounts of slaves.
427 the western front lines finally buckle and Germans,vandals Suebans and Burgundians charge through and raid the Gallic countryside, Italy is kept safe by armies raised to fight against the eagle order. Africa is raided by the vandals but they are defeated in the siege of Carthage. one legion under general Flavius Aetius resides in one of the last remaining castles and protects a large portion of Gaul by his very effective cavalry division.
425-441 Rome is taken four times during the time and changes emperor with alarming an frequency. Camillus Capito Carvo kills the senate and achieves complete control over the city. he is killed by his praetorians who appoint their captain an emperor. the mob of Rome revolts and appoints a merchant to be the king. the order of the eagle lands in italy and marches down to Rome and half-burns the city to the ground. the order itself begins to tear itself apart when they argue over who should be emperor and whether the senate should be brought back. in the eastern half of the empire revolts begin to tear the countryside apart and several governors begin to employ Persian military as mercenaries. Ravenna is razed down in a battle between the imperati and the senati, the ones who would like to restore the senate and others who want to appoint an emperor. a pope is voted to control the church he becomes a semi emperor asking the people to calm down.
435-436 the Hunnic horde is largely stopped by the Germans and their truce master Alrec, the huns defeat them in the end and invade roman territory
427-440 Flavius keeps his castle and refuses to return to Rome when the civil war heats up. he plays his enemies against each other, employs large quantities of Germans and Burgundians to protect the borders. he begins to get a legendary status with the populace of Gaul Hispanic and Britannica as he declares "his lands" fto b under true rule and protection. in 437 he defeats Attila in the "battle of the last castle" or battle of trier. when the lands appear calm he leaves for Italy with three legions in an attempt to settle things down.
441 the battle of Genua Flavius defeats the remains of the original senate army and takes their gold. stories have been told about the victories and benevolence of Flavius and he is hailed as the conquering hero.
442 Flavius defeats the order of the eagle and appoints himself emperor with a promise to bring back the senate. he promises military help to any governor who wishes promising to bring stability to the empire. he brings back slavery which had been cut back in the civil war and says that the empire will fall back unto more traditional times now. all barbarians who settled in their land are promised citizenship through two years of military service.
442-453 minor uprisings and sects are quelled as Flavius grabs complete control over the empire and restores the senate, this time the senate has officials who come from all provinces of the empire, and they run the day to day business. a near perfect post service is established and fast communications bring the empire closer together. the German fronts begin to quiet as the Germans increasingly raid the northern Slav villages and sell to Rome which needs the labor immensely. the Germans after uniting against the many and various hordes that rode through their lands begin to hold fast to that unity after the truce master appoints himself king over the German tribes. their land covers much of the northern roman border and slowly expands to the north.
457-460 flavius becomes curious about the world around the empire and sends expeditions to the east, the south and the north, and another to find the island Atlantis that a roman galley supposedly saw some two hundred years ago.
458-500 the minor industrial revolution of Regulus is largely revived by a small and primitive steam engine which is brought to the rest of the empire along with the heavy plough. industry and trade booms and roman manufactured goods become the main bargaining chip in the expeditions to the east.
461 after continuous failures and sunken ships the romans finally reach the island called Atlantis. closer examination reveals patches of fertile lands and natural strongholds. in the next hundred years the island was slowly populated mostly by monks, reclusive philosophers and roman/Gaul farmers. this pushes the navy engineers to rebuild the galleys over the course of the decades. roman ships become increasingly Nordic in appearance.
463 after a long and treacherous journey, the roman "explorers" reach china while it is still in civil war. even still trade routes are established with the increasingly sophisticated roman goods and the silk trades.
469-473 a massive slave uprising cripples Asia minor and forces Flavian to look at the fact that slaves are becoming so many in numbers that they are almost impossible to contain. Flavius however does nothing as he is intent on bringing Rome to its "roots".
472-477 Flavius leads an army into Africa, adding enormous tracks of land to the empire, he stops when reaching the middle of the continent, and was quoted saying: the roman will is great, but not endless.
477-485 through a series of campaigns the empire is extended to all of Arabia, Scotland and Ireland.
479 the great games are held for the first time in Rome. A great coliseum is built around them. it is a competition in the spirit of the Olympic games with athletes coming from all over the empire. it was henceforth held every ten years.
486 Flavius dies in a freak horse chariot incident. his adopted son , Magnum Carvo Aetius. he sees that with increasing productivity that slavery is slowly becoming obsolete. he begins reforms that make ti easier to a slave to get his freedom and impossible to make a roman citizen into a slave.
493 raids are becoming rarer and rarer on the German front while the "wall of the world" is raided increasingly more from the endless supply of nomadic hordes.
500 magnum Carvo Aetius dies, his adopted son takes over and continues his fathers attempt to make slavery more practical in cohesion with industry.
500s-810s Metallurgy improves vastly as industry requires better and better metal to build better factories.
560s-590s the rose wars, increasing tariffs by the Persians on the silk road force the romans to attack. after a long war the Persians are defeated and Rome suddenly shares borders with india.
587-639 reign of Flavian Magna "the mad builder" using the money gained from the rose wars Flavian Magna reconstructs Rome and several key cities of the empire. seven massive statues of Ceasar, Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Regulus, Flavius Aetius,Decimus and Flavian magma are built on the seven hills of Rome. statues, Colosseum, towers and large buildings become the norm in all major roman cities, with Rome gaining the nickname city of giants, because of the statues. these buildings however almost bankrupt the empire.
607Germania becomes a vassal of Rome. all nations surrounding the Mediterranean have become almost completely Romanized.
632 Mohammads great grandfather is killed in the wars over arabia so islam is never established.
660s roman explorers discover Greenland. an outpost is established to hunt the mystical whales that inhabit the sea around them.
680s America is discovered by going from Greenland to northern Canada. America is named Europa Novus.
700s the "old empire" of Gaul, Britan, Hispania, Greece, Asia minor and northern Africa is almost completely romanized.
740s increasing population problem because of greater living standards, increased production and general peace lead to massive exodus of romans to Europa Novus. printing press is discovered revolutionizing the way information travels through the empire shaking its foundations .
770s a large scale civil war erupts and the Flavian dynasty is toppled. the senate grows in power and the emperor becomes more ornamental. Rome becomes a federation with seven senates governing seven parts of the empire with one high senate operating in Rome along with the emperor.
790s the roman immigrants form eleven colonies on the east coast largely independent from Rome.
Excuses and clarifications
first of all I know there are a few asb's in this timeline, especially in the later half. I know that the romans had no practical way of finding Iceland(Atlantis is Iceland). But the fact is that from the north coast of Scotland there isn't that long a way to Iceland. Also the vikings found the country by similar accidents so at lest tome I think this is perfectly plausible.
Although it would appear that way this timeline is not ”let the roman empire continue so Flavian Aetius can take over” in fact when I began this timeline I had almost no idea who this guy was. It wasn't until I was knee deep in the civil war that I realized that I needed a hero to get things right. The roman protectorates during that era were mostly roman in name only as several new tribes settled in those provinces regardless whether or not Flavius thougt the lands were under his control.
Also regarding the minor industrial revolution. I'm not talking about full blown steam engines. its more of a more efficient way to make and build things. The heavy plough is a good example of a tool that revolutionizes the world without making machines. Imagine the romans knowing the basis for steam engines but not having the metallurgy for it.