Can we get a map of the new Roman world please?
There is a map on the previous page, however as soon as further more relevant changes take place on the mediterranean world, I’ll post a new one.
I really like your Vandal policy. Even Justinian treated them like a foreign power being subdued instead of going Vadanlia delenda est! He made the Vandal king bow before him in Belisarius’ triumph.
Unfortunately I dint’t have much time here, but as soon as I go back to Africa and the incoming war, I’ll further explain the situation of Vandals in the new Diocese and the fate of the former king.
Do you see a Western thematic system having the potential to emerge so the empire can pay for its armies? The West has a metal shortage and had to inflate its currency to pay troops. Constans II in the East did this as the empire lost 2/3 of its revenue in the Arab invasions. It allowed the empire to survive and keep its expensive army intact for the next 800 years.
That’s what I’m aiming for. It’s going to be a slow and gradual process but in the end both West and East are going to adopt a similar system. Hopefully I can read more about the subject before bringing it to the story as I want this process to be both realist but also slightly different from the OTL one: I would like to retain some differences between the border army (the new “Thematic” army) and the palatine units (the alternate “Tagmata”) of Italy and Thrace. I would gladly accept idea and suggestion…
Is there any way for the a West and East to be reunited under one ruler?
It’s going to happen before the end of the century (or maybe during the first decade of the new one, as I’m continously trying to change and improve the story).
Justinian in otl saw himself as the next Constantine ruling over the whole empire. So how will this affect the relationship between East and West? In otl Justinian never had any children, but in this to if he had a daughter she could be married to the Julius’ son. Justinian gets prestige and loses some of the stigma of his peasant origins and the empire is on a period of unification under a new Theodosius the Great.
The current Eastern Roman emperor is Hypatius, Anastasius’s nephew. However I didn’t forget about the East and its relation with the West. Expect an update soon about the two dynasties, the two imperial capitals, culture and religion during the age of the plague.
So, Roman Africa seems destined to expand soon. Belisarius having a private army is a bit concerning, but is not he may attempt to expand out of Africa... unless being called in Europe soon?
I am curious to see how much time the Vandals will require before being assimilated.
And well, new tensions between Visigothic Hispania, Rome and the Suebs seem coming soon.
Finally we can see what Belisarius can really achieve with little imperial meddling, but I can tell you it’s not going to be an easy conflict for him. About the Goths, I’ll just say that I can’t wait to reach that point of the timeline since there is going to be a great and big conflict, the first one I’m going to describe in great detail, althought the greatest conflict of the entire story is going to happen in the next century and if you pay attention you can already spot the ancestor of the future protagonists.
Every general had a private army back then,it would be surprising if a general didn’t.A force of 2,000 isn’t a cause for concern,I would however if he had 10,000 directly employed by himself.
True, a general was not only supposed to command the army but sometimes also to personally provide the men for the conflict. In a way or another every great roman commander of the V-VI century had their own personal retinue like Belisarius, Bonifacius (who probably invited the Vandals in order to recruit them in his own personal ranks) and Aetius.
Very true. Plus this is Belisarius. Of all Roman generals he is probably the most trustworthy with that kind of power. It would be best though if the Empire found a way to tie the army to the state more firmly rather than the generals.
It can’t unless the emperors can found the resources necessary to pay these troops. Well there are some exception: after the brief and failed campaign against Cosroe, Belisarius was deprived of his own personal retinue. Anyway with a restored Western empire the Bucellari would return to reprent only a minimal fraction of the empire total military strength.
Granted, is still the first private army since the Imperial restoration. Is not a good precedent no matter the loyalties of Belisarius to Marcianus are.
I don’t think it is.Every aristocrat would have armies at their own disposal,especially in the west where the Imperial government’s weak.It’s a major reason as to why emperors(unlike earlier ones) didn’t just proscribe the aristocrats and take over their wealth despite the government bankruptcy.
The wealth and the military power of these landowners prevent the emperors from acting without restraints. Even with a stronger West it would be better to rely of the senatorial families rather than outright oppose them.
Well then this is a point I am curious to discuss further, it intrigues me because it implies feudalization in the WRE.
Not really feudalization but only the principle of it as roman landowners don’t enjoy the level of power and authority over a certain territory their medieval colleagues would exert later on. We still have a proper central authority, a competent administration that obey to the emperor in Rome, but most importantly we avoided the chaos and total collapse of roman institutions in Italy, a consequences of no Gothic war and Lombard invasion. However I would leave this discussion about the feudalization of the territories of the former WRE to someone more knowledgeable than me about Medieval history.
Well, bucellarii were already a thing at the time of the POD, so there should be still plenty of them. Maybe ITTL to a lesser extent than OTL due to Nepos' and Marcianus' successes. By the way, Wikipedia reports that in OTL Gothic wars Belisarius' personal retinue amounted to 7000, so he is can be a potential threat ITTL should anything bad happen.
OTL Belisarius historically had a bigger retinue until the persian war, but here he is only at the “beginning” of his career and had to share the glory and the spoils of war with the emperor and Valens. Historically he lost the the imperial favour due to an inopportune comment about Iustinianus’s illness and was recalled to Constantinople. Here he was accused of appropriation of a great portion of the Vandal treasure, a common practice back then, but it’s possible that Belisarius went beyond the limit of what was considered acceptable. Thus why he lost almost everything and also why in this timeline his wealth and power is somewhat smaller, albeit compensated by an imperial marriage.
Maybe the tribute paid to the Berbers eventually transforms into a salary kind of thing, the Berbers becoming a paid standing army
It’s a strategy I intend to use in Africa but we can’t expect to reconquer the entire Diocese through bribery and diplomacy. This however is material for a future update.
Fine, but it won't lead to encastellation of rural properties as well?
A lot of the empire's interiors (Italy, coastal Africa, Greece) was highly urbanized in contrast to the exteriors (Levant, Britannia, etc...), and feudalism didn't really take hold in the same way. Cities were the nexuses of power and wealth, and the countryside a place to levy troops and raise taxes. I don't think at this point still in the migration period that the New Romans has to worry about that. Historically the Byzantines didn't really adopt a feudal style structure until the late 1000s, early 1100s and even then it still incorporated state-controlled regular regiments and foreign mercenaries to a significant degree. After that the Palaiologan era was heavily mercenary-reliant. But yeah, between the 700s and 1200s the Byzantines still had the most effective military system, constantly operating on all borders against different enemies and terrains.
As long as we avoid an alternate version of Mantzikert and the following civil war, the western roman empire is going to look like the latin version of the OTL medieval roman empire. A great power superior to most of its neighbours except the eastern ones. We just need to preserve the core of the empire from devastation and invasion and we should be able to keep the empire going mostly unchanged.
Features of feudalism were already there though.Diocletian or Constantine promulgated a new law that prohibited certain classes of people(mostly farmers) from leaving their area.
As you said certain feature were already there since the time of Diocletian, but not the entire whole package: it took an apocalyptic level of collapse of the roman world (and probably some more conditions) to see the development of what we know as medieval feudalism. It things for the empire improves we should be able to maintain the status quo…
I see that here Western-style feudalism with it's insane complexity will probably never even develop, instead it will linearly grow into a simpler, more centralized system like Byzantine-influenced pieces of Europe did
Most likely the Dominate system would be rolled back into service.
… like the Eastern Romans did.