EPILOGUE II. 16th Century.
The Roman Empire took part in several major wars, one of them a civil one, during this convulsed century: first against the Olivians, then against Aksum (which also triggered a civil war inside the Roman Empire) and finally against the Soboko.
The war against the Olivian Republic (1517-1532) at least was useful for finally setting stable borders between the two powers, from the Great Lakes to New Spain (OTL Florida); but the war against the former allies of Aksum (1547-1560) only served the interests of certain Roman elites who ambitioned a direct access to the Indian Ocean. This clash of interests triggered a parallel civil war (1556-1560) in Rome between the pro-war party and the anti-war party.
The final defeat of the anti-war party and the chaotic surrender of Aksum in 1560 pushed the pro-war elites to form a sort of oligarchy which would act as a shadow power out of the control of both the Diet and the Emperor. During the last decades of the century, these oligarchies promoted a proper colonization of the Upper Nile, created Germanic-controlled duchies in the area and subdued the key city port of Sumekho (renaimed Rome of the Grand South/Grossersüdenrom, or colloquially 'Groma') to their trading interests with India, Madagascar and Indonesia.
In the South Terra Nova, Rome had to defend their Caribbean dominions from the hostile expansion of the new-Malian Soboko. The war of 1580-1591 divided the area of influence of the Caribbean in two sides: North for the Romans (OTL Cuba, Hispaniola, Cayman, Jamaica, Puerto Rico..) and South for the Soboko (OTL Lesser Antilles, Aruba, Bonaire...). The Soboko also contacted the Inca Empire by the 1530s and they started to get involved in the internal quarries of the Inca soon afterwards; meanwhile, in Mexico, post-Aztec states which had embraced Olivian Christianism started to rise by the end of the century.
From a cultural point of view, the Civil war of 1556-60 reinforced the hegemony of the Germanic elites over the Latin, Slavic or Greek ones, triggering new migrations of non-Germanic Roman population towards the most tolerant Olivian Republic after 1560.