Question to Rome experts.
It's been proposed - notably by a scenario in What If? - that Rome conquering Germany (say by a more successful general replacing Varus at the Teutoberger Wald) would be enough, alone, to save the Empire.
That is - the Vistula-Dniester line is far shorter than the Rhine-Danube. Germania and Dacia are themselves rich, and soon to be latinized, provinces. When the migration era arrives, I suppose the theory is that the Huns, Iranic, Slavic and other peoples who will invade instead of the Germanic people won't have the numbers or technology to be quite as destructive; plus, Rome and Byzantium are further back from this frontier.
So, establish the Vistula-Dniester border, but not all the other reforms Rome saviors on the border constantly create (gunpowder, reduced slavery, conquering Persia and so on), unless you think they're natural add-ons to this one POD.
I don't see the Crisis of the third Century butterflied; Rome did that to herself, though there is no Gothic frontier (will another people successfully invade in their place?) and the Sassanids are still going to seize the opportunity to strike.
But the final collapse of the Empire, starting with the Visigothic settlement in Moesia under Valens and escalating with Adrianople, that's all highly dependent on the Germanic peoples, at least the way it occurred OTL.
So, what do you think? Surviving Empire, or at least Latinate survivor states that enter a Warring States period before restoring Roman unity? Or will Slavic/other barbarians overwhelm the Empire and just create different successor states, a la the "Coronation of the Hun" TL?
It's been proposed - notably by a scenario in What If? - that Rome conquering Germany (say by a more successful general replacing Varus at the Teutoberger Wald) would be enough, alone, to save the Empire.
That is - the Vistula-Dniester line is far shorter than the Rhine-Danube. Germania and Dacia are themselves rich, and soon to be latinized, provinces. When the migration era arrives, I suppose the theory is that the Huns, Iranic, Slavic and other peoples who will invade instead of the Germanic people won't have the numbers or technology to be quite as destructive; plus, Rome and Byzantium are further back from this frontier.
So, establish the Vistula-Dniester border, but not all the other reforms Rome saviors on the border constantly create (gunpowder, reduced slavery, conquering Persia and so on), unless you think they're natural add-ons to this one POD.
I don't see the Crisis of the third Century butterflied; Rome did that to herself, though there is no Gothic frontier (will another people successfully invade in their place?) and the Sassanids are still going to seize the opportunity to strike.
But the final collapse of the Empire, starting with the Visigothic settlement in Moesia under Valens and escalating with Adrianople, that's all highly dependent on the Germanic peoples, at least the way it occurred OTL.
So, what do you think? Surviving Empire, or at least Latinate survivor states that enter a Warring States period before restoring Roman unity? Or will Slavic/other barbarians overwhelm the Empire and just create different successor states, a la the "Coronation of the Hun" TL?