What if the Roman Empire didn't fall.

What if in 476 AD, Romulus Agustus the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire fled south from Ravenna. Let's say with the remains of the Roman Army he fled far south to Rhegium. (Reggio Calabria). He reeastalishes the capitol in Rhegium and secures Italy and Sicily. In Italy he secures up to Naples. What would happen?
 
The guy before Rommy (who was an illegitimate "emperor" that was really a barbarian puppet who foreshadowed what was to come), Julius Nepos, arguably the real last Western Roman Emperor, did flee Ravenna, and went to Dalmatia. His "Empire" there outlived Rommy and the WRE in Ravenna, but didn't amount to anything and was annexed by the Ostrogoths after his death.
 
Imajin's right.

And to make the Roman Empire last longer, you'll need a much earlier and far more radical POD.

Such a POD could be that Flavius Aetius was not assassinated by Valentinian III, or that the Huns were stopped during
their invasion of northern Gaul, or that the Huns for some reason never reached into Europe in the first place.

Keep in mind that saving the Latin part of the Roman Empire pretty much requires preventing the great migrations
of the Eastgermanic peoples into Roman territory (which was caused by the Huns invading eastern Europe).

If these migrations aren't stopped, then it is highly unlikely that the existence of the Western Roman Empire
can be prolongued for more than a few decades, or at most centuries.

And even if it survives for a long time, it will still be just a remnant of what it once was, propably covering only Italy, Illyria and Dalmatia.
 
Eh, just don't let Vandals into Africa. Or let Majoran get lucky with Ricimer and then reconquer Africa. With Africa and Italy in Roman hands, Western Empire could be able to survive and even reconquer Iberia.

It's quite funny, y'know - if Western Empire survived with Italy and Africa the 5th C. it may've quite likely survived till the present day - after all, it wouldn't have to face enemies that Byzantine Empire had to face, maybe excluding Arabs, but even their pressure'd be much weaker...
 
It's quite funny, y'know - if Western Empire survived with Italy and Africa the 5th C. it may've quite likely survived till the present day - after all, it wouldn't have to face enemies that Byzantine Empire had to face, maybe excluding Arabs, but even their pressure'd be much weaker...

I think that might be a fair assessment. People talk about the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, but it was really more like a series of strategic withdrawls. I took some Medieval Studies courses in University and I was surprised to learn that the Romans still had a strong prescene in parts of Africa and Iberia as late as the mid-6th Century AD.I think that if the Romans went the British Commonwealth route, and the Romans would have been enlightened enough to come up with something like that, then yes, I think that you could have some form of Roman Empire that lasts signifigantly longer than its real life counterpart.
 
The Romans had a presence there *because they came back*. Byzantine emperor Justinian reconquered the Vandal empire and some Visigothic cities in the 6th century.
 
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