AHC: have a dynasty in antiquity survive to modernity while remaining in power

Although very long lived, most dynasties - from the carolingians to the qing - came to an end eventually. your job here is to delay that for as long as possible - starting in middle antiquity, have a dynasty or a powerful family survive, in power, until modernity. their power can wane, of course, but they must survive and hold on to some actual power (no puppet emperors or anything)

Who's the most likely? I like the idea of an ancient roman family like the Cornelii or the Julio-claudians, but other interesting possibilities include indian (a Mauryan survival would be fascinating) and chinese dynasties surviving until modernity.
 
The Yamato dynasty fills this challenge OTL. A similar system likely could have developed in Merovingian France had Pepin not gotten the go-ahead to overthrow them.
 
Ui Niel in Ireland lasted from the 200s to the 1600s, and unlike the Yamato, had actual political power, though not always the same title.

A win at Kinsale and you could reasonably have them continue until the 2000s. Small and regional and a bit out of the way might work. It's why some of the lineages of Celtic Britian go back so far.
 
Ui Niel in Ireland lasted from the 200s to the 1600s, and unlike the Yamato, had actual political power, though not always the same title.

A win at Kinsale and you could reasonably have them continue until the 2000s. Small and regional and a bit out of the way might work. It's why some of the lineages of Celtic Britian go back so far.

I've been to Kinsale! :extremelyhappy:

Who would they win against? The English?
 
Ui Niel in Ireland lasted from the 200s to the 1600s, and unlike the Yamato, had actual political power, though not always the same title.

A win at Kinsale and you could reasonably have them continue until the 2000s. Small and regional and a bit out of the way might work. It's why some of the lineages of Celtic Britian go back so far.
I'm sure the English would have come again.
 
I'm sure the English would have come again.
The Nine Years' War almost drove the English to bankruptcy and that was while they held a lot of land in Ireland and had support from allied lords, if the O'Neills could unite Ireland a reconquest of Ireland would be a much harder task especially with the Spanish or French being allied to the Irish.

Also as Ivan Lupo argued in this thread (https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-spanish-invasion-of-ireland-during-1627.443418/) a Spanish-controlled or allied Ireland would cripple English power meaning that they might not reach their OTL strength, Ireland could have a relationship with Spain similar to the Anglo-Portuguese alliance.
 
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The Yamato dynasty fills this challenge OTL. A similar system likely could have developed in Merovingian France had Pepin not gotten the go-ahead to overthrow them.
Japanese imperial family is at least 1500 years old perhaps even older.
their power can wane, of course, but they must survive and hold on to some actual power (no puppet emperors or anything)
I think this disqualifies the Yamato dynasty, due to how long they lacked any effective power independent of the shoguns.

Cadet branches are also presumably disqualified, considering a fair part of European royal houses are cadets of ancient houses like the Robertians. Though they too don't stretch nearly as far back as middle antiquity.
But yeah, if it doesn't have to be continuous rule, then the Solomonids of Ethiopia are your best bet (the interruption by the Zagwe kinda counting, I guess, since the Zagwe had Solomonid descent). There's not really any other dynasties that come close to both the longevity (which disqualifies most other dynasties) and power that they held in their country (sorry Japan).

Starting from 900 would allow for some more flexibility, I would image. It wouldn't be outrageous, for example, to suggest that the Goryeo of Korea could last 1000 years, seeing as the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties combined ruled for roughly 1000 years continuously from 918 to 1910, with the former only being overthrown after the Mongol invasions and the king's attempt at fighting with the nascent Ming.
 
Hmmm...the issue becomes that the laws of probability start working against this outcome during European succession laws. If the house dies out in the male line only, it usually takes on a new name. The odds of this happening are fairly high over ~15 centuries.

The best bet might be a surviving Umayyad caliphate, where polygamy reduces the odds of extinction in the male line, though power would probably become increasingly religious as time passed a la the Pope. Alternatively, a POD where the Japanese emperors never lose power to the Shogunate also does the trick.

Perhaps the House of Sassan could reclaim the Persian throne with Chinese aid, butterflying the Mongol/Turkic invasions somehow?
 
Branches of the Hasanid line of the House of Ali have been ruling almost continuously in various parts of Arabia and other places until recently and are currently reigning in Morocco and Jordan, though this applies only if you sum all the distint branches collectively as a single "dynasty"; also, you have to discount geography to have continuity: Hasanid rulers date back to the mid-late eighth century Idrisid rule in Morocco, but not as an unbroken chain to this day in any single place.
Not sure it counts.
 
If the Russian Tsars had kept their promises to the Georgians in 1801 and decided that a nominally independant vassal kingdom would serve their interests better than incorporating Georgia into the Russian Empire, then the Bagrationi dynasty would have survived in power throughout the 19th century down to WW1. In 1918 Georgia becomes an independant kingdom and resists takeover by the Bolsheviks. So the Bagrationi would qualify. They came to power in I think the C9th,and in legend and tradition much earlier. The only question is, which branch of the dynasty?
 
Branches of the Hasanid line of the House of Ali have been ruling almost continuously in various parts of Arabia and other places until recently and are currently reigning in Morocco and Jordan, though this applies only if you sum all the distint branches collectively as a single "dynasty"; also, you have to discount geography to have continuity: Hasanid rulers date back to the mid-late eighth century Idrisid rule in Morocco, but not as an unbroken chain to this day in any single place.
Not sure it counts.

Probably the easiest for this, since they've ruled since the 7th century.

That can certainly be achieved - perhaps have HS reform more quickly or have someone else take power, like Ras Imru or Amha Selassie.

You still have the problem of the Solomonids needing to establish a lineage to Axum (and further back). Dil Na'od, sure, but how many dynasties did Axum have? Their descent from the Queen of Sheba/King Solomon is as much legend as many European monarchies are descended from Odin or the Japanese monarchy is descended from Amaterasu.
 
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