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Hello iam golden silver 81 me and my friend Ikkermacht have made this timeline

i will be posting i and my fried have written a lot but we can still rewrite many things

some things to consider i will try to keep butterfly effects to minimum so that i might not suffer so much in thinkig of new rulers

but things will change A LOT

in this timeline muhamed dies early

this timeline will begin in 642 with the death of heracluis

ps i know constans was called constantine but i will call him constants for simplicity sake
 
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A heros misery
March 642:
A soft breeze swept the Bosporus; it carried the sounds of cries coming from the mighty city of Constantinople.One child was weeping close to the body and crying; it was the funeral of a timid, temperate, courageous, and most of all, a great man, Heraclius, the Savior of Rome.

He had led his people against Persia and the Avar barbarians and won the losing war. Heraclius spent the next 14 years after the war's end rebuilding his empire, which had been exhausted and weak by the horrible Roman-Persian War of 602 to 628.He was called Nikephoros, the Bringer of Victory. He was truly a great man; he returned the Roman Empire to its former glory, remade the army, made tax reforms, and took back some territories via conquest or diplomatic appeal. After years of negotiating, they even managed to bring the kingdom of Altava under Roman control as a client state. Along with many Berber tribes that had trade deals with the Byzantines, if he had one major failing in his life, it was that the church, despite his compromise with both the Monophysites and Chalcedonians, accepted the Monothelitism doctrine; however, he knew that they did so because of him and knew this compromise would not outlast him; the church hunted him, but his last days were to be the worst.

In 642, as his son Constantine III was getting worse, he told his father that his son was to be the future emperor. He agreed to his son's wish, and Constantine's deterioration was the beginning of sorrows for the great emperor; he became more unstable, and more isolated, and was only thinking of the church and his salvation, ignoring the power struggle that was already in the city.

Heraklonas, who was co-emperor, and her mother Martina were thinking about the succession. But due to pressure from the generals because of Heraclius' words, he made Constantine’s son also co-emperor; however, some in the senate accused Martina of poisoning Constantine and that she would do the same to her son; they went to the emperor to fix the matter, but by this point, Heraclius had become more senile.

And despite the pleadings, Heraclius was too busy to hear or even care about petty rumors, so he ignored it since he was trying so desperately to heal the split in the church; he had sealed her fate, despite everything that he had done, and he was to suffer the fate of Justinian; the church he never healed the divide he tried to so desperately heal in his last year of life, but at this point, he was too old. His mind, which was so sharp back in his glory days, was now only the mind of a man who forgot things he just heard. With the emperor senile, the army stormed the palace and exiled both Martina and Heraklonas for poisoning. Heraclius was now in conflict with Pope John IV, who was going to condemn his compromise once he died. When the news came to him, he wept and fell to the floor.

The emperor ordered the deaths of all the generals and that Constantinople must be punished; he said he would burn the city if the generals and advisors were not punished, and no one listed to him. Heraclius the Great was imprisoned, but he was well treated; nonetheless, Heraclius was a broken man. He was famous, wealthy, and surrounded by prestige, but he was lonely, sad, and mentally unstable. He thought over and over again that God had punished him, and he believed that he was suffering because of what the Lord had said in Mark 8:36.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

The only thing that distracted him from his misery was seeing his grandson, and that boy knew how to cheer him up. The next few months flew by, but they were dreadful for Heraclius; he felt the cold embrace of death coming for him. One night in March, he told his grandson to continue his work and be a good emperor, that he might have the blessing of God and that he might not pass this curse on to him. He prayed with his grandson, and for the last time in his life, he felt an emotion that he had long forgotten for some years, for the last time he felt happy. The next morning, his courtiers and servants found him dead. He had died in the night after his grandson left.

The boy came back, closed his eyes, and stood beside his grandfather as the priests and deacons congregated. He cried as he followed along with the priest and the sounds of the prayers of the dead. The procession ended in the Church of the Holy Apostles, on this sunny spring day, with the Golden Horn and the Bosporus reflected in the light as the breeze carried the sound of sadness and min censers with incense. This was the funeral of a great Emperor; the night before, he had given an account of his life and his sins to God, especially his marriage, and to commend his soul to the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the Empire continued, and even here, in a city full of sadness and weeping, even at this funeral, the boy had to be prepared. The next day, the boy addressed the senate with a speech blaming Heraklonas and Martina for eliminating his father, who was barely alive, and the 11-year-old began under a regency of senators led by Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople. Constantine III would die just a few days later, and thus began the reign of the boy Basileus Constans II.
 
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Eastern roman empire in 642 at the death of heraclius and ascension of Constans II
Byzantine_and_Sassanid_Empires_in_600_CE.png
 
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This is starting to look good. Interesting to see how places such as Iberia and Italy will look like with a stronger Byzantium, and no Islamic empires
 
This is starting to look good. Interesting to see how places such as Iberia and Italy will look like with a stronger Byzantium, and no Islamic empires
Trust me this going to be a long story
I and my friend have tried to make it realistic
But have added surprises since history is full of them
 
So is Exarch Gregory the Patrician going to lead Carthage to independence, or will Carthage need her Berber allies to lead the city to become something more than just a regional city of the Empire?
 
erros of the sha
may 642

A messenger entered the palace and surprised the young shahanshah Yazdegerd III. He was busy looking to solve the many problems in his realm. In theory, he was king of all of Persia; in reality, he had authority only in Sakastan, Pars, and Khuzestan, while the north hated him and refused to mint coins in his name. This was all due to Heraclius and the civil war that shook the foundation of his empire since the defeat of 628; by the end of 632, he was sha, and now he is battling not for conquest but to keep his realm alive, which was being attacked by outside forces like the Turks and forces and from the inside since so many of his nobles declared independence. When the messenger arrived, he called the shah.

"What is it now—another Turkish raid?" "If it is, I don’t care."

The messenger replied: "No, my king, Heraclius Parviz (the Victorious), has died!"

Yazdegerd III was surprised; he felt relieved and scared, for he knew that Heraclius was a great commander respected and feared by the Persians. But he knew that Heraclius wanted peace; he was thinking, What will the new king of the Greeks do? 14 years had passed; his realm could have recovered, and he was vulnerable. He needed to make peace with the king of the Greeks. This was so important to him that he needed to meet him in person. He sent letters for an official meeting in two months,

Late July 642

Yazdegerd took longer than expected as he had to deal with raids from the Turks and fight his old vassals in the Caucasus, who by this point had long betrayed him. When he arrived at Constantinople, he had a poor excuse of guards and companions; before the Persian Shah had the best guards, one could see the riches of him.Now the sha had come with almost no jewels, the metals he carried were painted to look like gold and silver; one could see how low the Sassanids have fallen; Yazdegerd was waiting for the emperor; and then he saw how a boy stood alongside the patriarch of Constantinople, Yazdegerd chuckled, and this is what consumed his mind? This was a great worry? He expected to see a lion, but he saw a lamb.

He greeted Heraclius' grandson and the patriarch; the patriarch talked in this meeting, while Constans watched with attention. The meeting was quick, and they reached an agreement that they would support Yazdegerd, but he had to help Constans and recognize the independence of Caucasian Albania. The shah agreed that he was now confident that the Greeks would be no menace to him since, in his mind, they were led by a "holy man" and a weak boy. He returned to Persia; once he arrived, there was news that Gil Gavbara had declared independence and established the Dabuyid kingdom, but he could not care less.

He said, "Let the rulers of Tabaristan kill each other." He was confident now that in 10 years he would reunite the whole of Persia under his rule.
 
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ironic, i just started a timeline about a world where the invasions go further, and i find one where they do not happen

Well, keep it up, i really liked the idea
 
Seeds of treachery
As the time of the regency of Patriarch Paul II was coming to an end, Constant had a good experience learning to lead his realm and had also spent his time learning how to fight and lead an army. Valentinus was a good teacher to him, and around this time, a young Constans married Valentinus daughter Fausta.He was on the eve of adulthood, and aside from learning the skills of warfare, he took more time to learn how to administrate his empire; he showed a talent for it. He also hoped that he would just be an administrative emperor due to the minor enemies the empire had, but it was not to be as tensions from the southwest of his realm were about to come forth.

The Exarchate of Africa at this time was in internal turmoil due to the conflict between the mainly Orthodox Chalcedonian Christian population and the supporters of monothelitism. In an attempt at a compromise between Chalcedonianism and Monophysites, as Heraclius suspected after his death, the compromise was disowned by those who had accepted it, and even Pope Paul II rejected it; he was not the only one. Exarch Gregory the Patrician hated the idea and was angered that the emperor and especially the Patriarch had not officially condemned it, so he began to enact the first edicts of persecution in 643; by July 645, Gregory hosted a theological dispute in his capital, Carthage, between the Chalcedonian Maximus the Confessor and the Monothelite former Patriarch of Constantinople, Pyrrhus.

Gregory was a smart man and a persistent one as well, and it seems that he succeeded in bringing about a reconciliation between the two, and Pyrrhus re-embraced the Chalcedonian position. But the situation would only get worse over the next few months; several local synods in Africa proceeded to condemn monothelitism as a heresy that the emperor himself was accused of defending or having been a heretic himself. This threw the exarchate into religious violence, as many of those few who still upheld monothelitism were attacked. Gregory, tired of the chaos, sent many letters to the emperor. The letters began with much respect, but as time went on, they became more disrespectful toward the emperor. To this day, we do not know if Gregory was truly hoping for the emperor to resolve the matter or was just being formal to show that he had no other choice.

Whatever the case might be, Gregory got furious that the emperor was ignoring such a big issue. Constans never received them as Patriarch Paul II ignored them, seeing it as the thing that Gregory had to fix with the bishop of Carthage. Then the letter stopped. One night, Gregory had a secret meeting with the highest-ranking men of church and state in the exarchate and gave the following speech:

I ask you, what ruler is incapable of defending the faith? What sins have we committed that caused Basileus to forsake us?
Have you and I not tried to solve these debates on the nature of the lord? What kind of ruler does not send help to us?

Why has the emperor in Constantinople not called for council? and there is evidence that Basileus SUPPORTS THE HERETICS!

It seems to me that we should not serve an uncaring Basileus, much less one THAT SUPPORTS HERETICS!

We should strive with all our determination to free ourselves from him who calls himself the Emperor!

The men cheered as the seeds of distrust had now become the harvest of rebellion.
 
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Harvest of rebellion.
Early 646

Gregory had been preparing for months; he had prepared his men in constant training; he had also convinced Berber tribes to join him by his word or the gold in his coffin; he had received money from the local churches; and he had been given support from an unlikely ally, the pope, who like him disliked the compromise and the fact that no official condemnation had been issued on the part of the emperor.

With this wealth, Gregory reduced taxes on the exarchate, which made him popular. Gregory has also made a successful propaganda campaign against Constans rule; at first, it was subtle, mentioning how tragic it is that Heraclius is gone and citing the bible, especially Ecclesiastes 10:16. But it became less subtle, saying that things like Heraclius would disapprove of his grandson's decision-making, or in this case, lack thereof, or that Heraclius compromise was done in desperation and only pushed when he had become senile, and the heretics at the court manipulated him the same way they manipulated Constans.

He was doing a good job of using constans greatest source of approval against him, but this day all would change; as the men rallied in the streets of Carthage, Gregory stood to speak and uttered these words:

Men of Carthage, today I have assembled you because I can't take it any longer. This beautiful city and all these territories are being governed by an incompetent, uncaring, and worst of all, manipulated boy that we call Basileus!

The crowd fell silent, and Gregory got a little nervous, for he knew if he didn't convince them, he would be killed. He continued:

I know you want to be loyal to Heraclius, but if you follow his grandson, you are not being loyal because he not only supports heretics but he has been manipulated by them!

The crowd began to whisper.

What basileus does not call for a council? Why does he let this chaos rule? Is this the attitude of a good ruler?

He might be an honorable boy, but he is not fit to lead us. The snakes in the capital have conspired to use him as their puppet, and will you take orders from a ruler who is manipulated by them?

Some in the crowd began to yell NO!

Is it unjust for us to deal with the betrayal of these snakes and our Emperor? Is it unjust if we fight for a dream?

Men of Carthage, my dream of a united Rome died the day that Heraclius died, and my faith in the healing of the church was buried with him.

So may I ask, will you join me? And together we shall restore Rome and the faith of the one true church! He would have wanted it, do you think?
He said this as he pointed at a golden coin of Heraclius.

The crowd began to yell that they were to join him and free the empire from the tyranny of the heretics, Gregory smiled as he knew the last step was over he now was master of these lands.
 
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The long march
April 646
Gregory spent the last two months persecuting the few Monophysites and Monothelite heretics; not having the numbers to fight back, they fled to Tripolitania and the kingdom of Altava. Some heretic Berbers defected, but for most, gold was more powerful than faith.Now with an absolute rule, he sets his sights on the east and the province of Egypt. Of course, he could attempt, like Heraclius, to sail to Constantinople, but he knew that would not work because, unlike Phocas, Constans was not disliked and there was no war distracting him to make a landing possible, so he decided that Egypt would be the best target.

The city of Constantinople

Constans was furious and took out his anger at the patriarch, saying, "What have you caused?" You fool, now we have an open rebellion due to your incompetence.

The patriarch said, "Basileus, you must understand; I thought the local bishop could deal with it; I had to attend to more important things as your regent.

As regent, you should have informed me of this situation to avoid it!
The now-sole emperor yelled

A servant entered and said, "Basileus?"

Constans said: What! Can you see I am busy?

The servant replied: General Valentinus has arrived.

The emperor said to signal to make him enter. Valentinus entered the room and said,Basileus, I have heard the news.

Constans just said: "Spare me the details, Valentinus, and speak."

Valentinus answered: I ask for troops. I will lead them, and I will take some 22 000 troops.

Constans replied: You don't need more? Or assistance from the Berbers?

The general said: It's not necessary, Basileus. The emperor asked once again and got the same response.

Finally, Constans said, Fine, make your preparations and leave for Egypt.

While Valentinus prepared, Gregory began his invasion of Tripolitania, taking some cities like Sabratha, Oea, and Leptis Magna, that did not want to join him. The outnumbered garrisons were not ready for a siege, and in every desperate sortie they tried, the Berber Calvary would decimate them. Despite this, Gregory was advancing slower than before since now he avoided the coast. He had left a good part of the navy to defend Carthage and his base of power, for he knew the forces of constans might go straight to his capital to attempt a knockout blow, and he knew the imperial navy was enough to crush his on the open sea. Still, every coastal city the took has a safe place to resupply, but Gregory was no interested in a long, drawn-out, multi-year conquest of north Africa. Speed and surprise were his allies, and he was losing them both. The Berbers and other traders who knew these lands told him that he had two options: take the safe route along the coast or send a smaller part of his force ahead to take the cities; due to his timid nature, he chose the first option.
 
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