AHC: Roman Empire based out of Naples

With a PoD after 700 AD/CE is there a way to have the Eastern Roman Empire survive to the present day, with the catch that it looses control of Anatolia and the Balkans, but retains power over Southern Italy?
 
You would need a catastrophic event to happen to the Empire's central government during a period where they still have firm control of Southern Italy. The 4th crusade constituted just such an attack on the central government, and allowed four states (Epirus, Nicea, Trebizond, and Theodoro) to form from the contenders attempting to take the throne, two of which (Trebizond and Theodoro) were never really reunited with the empire proper, but outlasted it anyways. If you had this event (most likely a sack of Constantinople) take place while they still control Naples, and the people who attacked Constantinople are for whatever reason unable to take southern Italy as well, then it will almost certainly give rise to some ambitious noble who sets up an empire in exile there. He and his descendants will presumably now have the strongest claim to being the heirs of Rome, provided that they outlast any other successor states, and that none of those successor states retakes Constantinople. After that it is just a matter of having an independant southern Italy into modern times, which is certainly possible, but a state like that is unlikely to be very powerful, so it would be the Roman Empire in name only.
 
Actually Naples remaining independent to the modern day seems perfectly likely, southern Italy is well suited to be a powerful state in the med, most of the reason for its decline was land mismanagement and incompetent rule, before that it was one of the major agricultural regions of the Mediterranean. It could very well become grekophone in the event of continued hellenic rule to so that takes out the two main reasons for why it would loose its independence.
 
as above mentioned it would be possible to keep Naples independent and, if event like the sack of Constantinople happened, youd have a bolstered greco/roman populous in the region which may encourge better management and more centralisation early on in the region, possibly even getting a early boost to industry, something that could stabilse the state til the modern day
 
Wouldn't a rump state in Naples depending on the time period have a slim Greek majority and possible minority.
 
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