yeah i was joking but i dont agree fully that justinian would take out the visigoths as they where not so rotten compared to the 7th and early 8th century
@Goldensilver81
I'm kinda split on this to be honest. Depending on how well the Visigoths unify around the King, as they had an elective monarchy, they could elect a militarily competent monarch like how the Ostrogoths did. The campaign in Hispania could turn into otl's Gothic War. But even so, there would likely be factions within Hispania that would likely throw open their gates to Justinian and Belisarius. Theoderic the Great near the end of his reign planned a massive crackdown on the Roman aristocracy and the Papacy because he was paranoid that they were conspiring with Emperor Justin I to reinstate Roman rule. Thankfully he died as soon as he did, because that would have likely sparked a catastrophic war between both the Ostrogoths and Romans which I doubt the Ostrogoths would have survived as such a move likely would have sparked widespread Roman revolts. Though Theoderic was ulimately right to be suspicious about this as there's evidence of correspondence between Justin I and various Roman Senators putting out feelers to see what the mood of Constantinople was about a possible Roman intervention in Italy.
@Basileus_Komnenos Hi, Great TL.
I would like to know what will happen with the genoese and the Bulgarians:
@pls don't ban me
Thanks! I love that username btw!
I plan on various divergences for the history of the Genoese. Without spoiling very much, think of the Komnenoi paralleling the Black Sea Empire of Mithridates "the Poison King" who dominated the Eastern trade during his reign. Honestly this is what the Komnenoi did to great effect in otl becoming a major trading power in the Black Sea. They were able to convince the Mongols to route all trade through them turning the 13th and 14th Century into a prosperous period while the rest of the Roman world burned. Though had Trebizond had been under competent leadership in otl its likely it could have kept Sinope and used its vast economic wealth to bankroll a large navy and army to begin steamrolling the Turks. This was happened in otl with the Palaiologoi at various points like when Alexios Philanthropenos began his campaign in the East. Andronikos III was also able to retake territory despite the general ineptitude of the government in Constantinople and the near perpetual fiscal crisis during the rule of the Palaiologoi.
@Eparkhos has a timeline showing the realistic expansion the Romans could do if they were under competent leadership. The Empire of Trebizond has massive wealth, and if it had more militarily inclined leaders it likely could have had a way better time in Anatolia than in otl.
Two words:
KALOYAN STRONK! Lmao
the former in OTL allied with the Nicea empire and while helping them by taking back Constantinople they basically raped the trebizondian empire for the black sea colonies, so i hope you are able to ally them( you need the genoese to beat the venetians) before Nicea does.
Well Trebizond was about to win in otl. They had everything going for it in otl. The Niceans were almost killed in their crib with Theodoros nearly being killed by Kakushraw I. Alexios in otl was dealing with a Turkish invasion when David went off on his own to try and march against the Latins where he was ambushed. Alexios in otl was captured by the Sultan's men while on a hunting trip and was basically horrifically tortured until the city of Sinope was surrendered to the Turks.
the latter, will soon clash with the Latins after they refuse the alliance offer from zar Kalojan, you might seek his alliance in order to take back the Greek holdings.... also if you are gonna try to conquer the Bulgarians much later, you have to act rightfully since the last time the conquered Bulgarians were treated as shit by the byzantine emperor, they rebelled.
True. I plan on having things diverge in a major way from otl in the mid 1200's anyway by the times the Mongols arrive so this issue will be solved by then.
And I am interested in how the Mongol Invasion of the Sultanate of Rum will affect TTL's Rhomania.
Seljuks: Mr. Rhomania I don't feel so good
Rhomania: Its free real estate
The problem the Roman empire had was not really nationalism, but that it could be less religiously inclusive and tolerant than the ols Pagan Rome, or at times Persia or the Muslim powerrs, which is why monophysites for eg could prefer Islamic rule. A little more tolerance would go a long way
Though I feel like Roman rule would have been more favorable to the Copts than otl's Mamaluks as that was when Arabization was accelerated due to the Mamaluk hostility toward the Copts.
well purple is a nice colour to be burued in apparantly....
@sarahz Agreed.
Its kinda sad that Justinian and Theodora's tombs were likely looted and stripped of all valuables by the Crusade. The Crusaders essentially dumped Basil II's corpse into the street and ransacked his tomb. Though fortunately his epitaph survives so we have some idea of what he looks like and some of the monuments of his era.
I am hoping the Romans fund Columbus and claim the Americas....... The Roman proince of Mexico has a nice ring to it....
Well not even the Ottomans were able to do this in otl. For something like this, the Romans have to expand westwards into to Northwestern Africa which might be hard. Plus if they're in that position, they'd likely prioritize conquering Eastwards to focus on Egypt and the more direct access to the Indian Ocean and overland trade routes in Central Asia/the Middle East.
