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It is true that what remains of the Roman Empire is still powerful, and Aurelian is certainly an excellent military commander, but even he waited until after the death of Shapur I and Hormizd I to mount a campaign against the Sassanids, cut short by his assassination in 275. Although he did...

I'm assuming for the purposes of this thread that Rome holds on to Anatolia west of the Taurus mountains and to the rest of North Africa outside of Egypt. How much would the public grain dole have to be reduced (if any) and in which areas with the loss of Egypt? I could see the curtailment of...

Were the Lakhmids loyal vassals of the Sassanids at this point in time? Perhaps Shapur might grant fiefs to their noble houses in order to dilute the influence of the old Arsacid nobles, at least as far as providing wartime levies. If not, then at least with his new wealth Shapur could afford to...

With a loss as catastrophic as this, the Jews and Christians will be the most likely scapegoats. There will be stories of them revealing hidden passages into cities or rioting against Roman garrisons. Paranoia about them being agents of the enemy could very well lead to mass expulsions and...

The Zoroastrian elite clergy never seemed to be very interested in spreading their religion beyond the Persian heartland. Manichaeism, on the other hand, began a rapid expansion in the 3rd century, eventually spreading from the Roman Empire to China OTL. With Egypt under Persian control, I could...

If Shapur conquers Egypt, not only does he gain Rome's breadbasket, but he would now also control the spice trade from India through the Red Sea. Does Persia at this time have a civil service capable of handling these riches effectively? Perhaps Shapur inherits a Roman-style civil service by...

In one of history's many turning points, Odaenathus, the lord of Palmyra, led a patchwork army against the forces of Shapur I, the second Sassanid king, in 260 AD as it was marching back to Persia. The Persians has just won a mighty victory against the Romans, even capturing the emperor Valerian...

After the end of this alt-WWII I think that France may be well positioned to take an early lead in land-based rocketry. France had its own space visionary in one Robert Esnault-Pelterie, who designed a sounding rocket capable of reaching an altitude of 60 miles, but which experienced a lag in...

Given the even worse harrowing that the Soviet Union is experiencing in this war, it will be interesting to see what effect this will have on non-Russian communists in the immediate post-war period. The rebuilding period will be even longer and more painful for the Soviets than OTL, leaving...

With the evacuation of the French gov't to Algeria, I wonder just how many ordinary citizens that followed will end up staying there and how that will affect the future development of that nation. Would an eventually independent Algeria have closer ties to France or would the presence of extra...

Let's assume Murphy somehow gets a waiver for height and is picked up for paratroop school and ends up in either the 82nd or 101st Airborne. With minimal butterflies Market-Garden is executed in September 1944. Although I know one man alone cannot be responsible for the success or failure of...

Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple and architect of the Jonestown massacre, was infamously paranoid about the FBI and CIA, regarding them as an existential threat to his "revolutionary" congregation. This paranoia was likely a contributing factor to his decision to relocate the Peoples...

Very interesting. If the war had dragged out to Spring 1946, do you have any idea of the type and number of ships the Soviets would have had for Pacific operations? I imagine that most would never have returned to American hands once US-Soviet relations inevitably deteriorate after Japan...

How ready do you think the American public was for more casualties, even at MacArthur's lower estimate? Was there ever any polling taken to indicate whether the public wanted to "crush them now" or instead let them wither away? Suppose Truman at least postpones DOWNFALL to allow Spaatz's new...

Given that Japanese military communications remained open to US code breakers right up to the end of WWII, did the US top brass realize how well prepared the IJA was for an invasion of Kyushu? Conservative estimates for American casualties topped half a million, so if American leadership also...

Reading of the Rashidun conquest of Iraq in OTL and TTL makes me wonder: where was the Persian light cavalry? Was there simply little to be found in Iraq, being instead stationed on the eastern and northern fringes of Persia, or was Arab cavalry simply that much better? Were horse-archers used...

I think one of the ironic winners of TTL might be the Zoroastrian faith. If Persian dhimmis are recruited heavily for the Rashidun bureaucracy, then there is no reason to publicly convert to Islam, as was the case under the Umayyads. This tolerance of the local religion also helps to keep the...

Perhaps the Sassanids earn their keep by helping the Tang emperor crush the Western Turkic Khaganate in the 650s CE. As a reward Yazdgerd III could be given control of the northern cities of the Tarim Basin as a vassal of China, along with the fancy new title of Awe-inspiring General of the Left...

In 642 CE a "last stand" took place at Nahavand in modern-day Iran, where the Sassanid army lost to the invading forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. After this defeat, the Sassanid king Yazdgerd III was never again able to muster the forces to seriously impede the Arab conquest of the rest of his...

If the Wikipedia article I read was correct, the Volga Bulgars had a pilgrimage site within their territory that functioned as a substitute for an actual Hajj. ITTL, considering how immense the expanse of the Caliphate probably ends up, perhaps a rationalist Caliph would designate regional...