AHC: Roman Empire intact in 2018

Albert.Nik

Banned
Roman Empire could take over Germania,Scandinavia and even Western Reaches of Russia and make it just as developed by taking in all the Germanic,Celtic and Balto-Slavic peoples and giving Roman and Greek culture aspects to them too. This could help.

The Romans could establish a satellite empire in India,Central Asia and Xinjang like how Kushans came in from Tarim Basin and did. Only difference would be that these come from Europe. Tocharians,Eastern Iranians,Indians are again given touch of Roman civilization so that they will be Rome's insurance if things go bad like Arab invasions,Hunnic invasions,etc. Large Romanized settlements will be then built in India,China and Central Asia.

Remotely possible scenario: Romans conquer entire Africa and use industrial level technologies invented by them and the Greeks, settle in it,Terraforming it,breed more and more in it and eventually Romanizing or Italizing it.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
With any POD after 100 AD make sure the Roman Empire in the year 2018 AD holds at least 70% of the lands it held in 100 AD.

It probably will fall and be reformed several times, but it is pretty easy.

  1. Have a few more talented and long lived emperors. So say in about 300 AD, you get a western Emperor who has a true knack for winning battles and preventing civil wars. Maybe does something like move frontier to Elbe. Son is good, Grandson ok, Great Grandson has a lot of talent. The empire will still fall, but it may be put back together.
  2. Charlemagne. Avoid split inheritance. Next ruler is also very talented. Might well move capital to Rome within next few hundred years.
  3. Holy Roman Empire. Someone gets control of it and maintains control of it. At some point, conquers Rome. At some point, Rome can be the capital if important to you. Latin is court language, and over time, the masses will relearn some Romance Language.
  4. Charles the V wins.
  5. Make the 1800's the century of the Hapsburgs. Hapsburg gain big in Napoleonic wars. Much more Italian lands. Maybe get some of the lands near the Rhine Prussia got IOTL. Court language is Latin. You can still have Germany forms, and this helps with the language since we are removing a lot of Germans. Some war in 1850's give Hapsburg a lot more of Italy. Some war in 1870's gives Hapsburg a slice of Southern France. Hapsburg take big chunks of the Ottomans empire in series of war. Then have two huge wars in 1900's, and Hapsburg win. Annex enough to get you to the 70%. I know this sounds crazy ASB, but so was OTL. Exactly again how did the Prussia of 1800 become the strongest power in Europe in 1913. And then after losing a war big, come reasonably close to conquering Europe. Same idea here. Things generally go Hapsburg way but the Hapsburg win the really big wars this century.
 
Holy Roman Empire. Someone gets control of it and maintains control of it. At some point, conquers Rome. At some point, Rome can be the capital if important to you. Latin is court language, and over time, the masses will relearn some Romance Language.
Something regarding Otto III, anyone?
 
There are two ways to do this.

The first is to build on the Byzantine success of lasting into the 13th century (I am not counting the post 4th Crusade state, if only because it wasn't much of an empire). This already gets you halfway there, and there are obvious paths to get further in either preventing the loss of Syria and Egypt in the 7th century, or have Basil II be succeeded by competent successors who strengthen the empire domestically and keep adding territory piece by piece. The Mecdonians at their height had about 30% of the second century AD Roman Empire. The big problem with this is that it appears that the big problem with the 6th and 7th century empire was a succession of plagues that depopulated the Mediterranean basin and getting rid of those might be considered ASB.

The second is obviously to go the Chinese route and have warlords come in and periodically revive the empire.

One difference with Roman and China is that with Rome, central imperial control was maintained over the older, more urbanized half. In China, dynastic continuity was maintained in the less developed south and the "barbarian" successor states were in the more populated and more developed north. The Sui and T'ang dynasties were half Turkish dynasties (I'm not sure about the T'ang) that were the Chinese equivalents of the Franks. Since they emerged in the older, more urbanized part of the empire they didn't have Charlemagne's problems in getting ahold of hard currency and literate officials.

Maybe a POD could be Alaric or Stilicho taking over the East and imperial continuity being maintained in the West, then a Gothic or Vandal Emperor in Constantinople does the Justinian thing and conquer the West but is able to make it stick.
 
France coexisted with the Roman Empire and France still exists.

If we look at the year 1000 AD or so, the Byzantine Empire was just one of many countries with a large and assimilated territory. If you hadn't heard of the Roman Empire and you looked at a map of 1000 AD, it wouldn't be clear that France would survive and the Byzantine Empire would fall. The age of the Byzantine Empire at any given point really means nothing, what matters are its economy and durability of its institutions. Empires fall due to economic and military decay rather than due to a ticking timer that says each empire must decline.

The Roman Empire surviving to modern day is not that hard, but it will wax and wane in power over time. If it contains all of Mare Nostrum, it probably would have lost and regained this territory, rather than kept it continuously.

Not if you didn't have a map showing the de facto situation rather than de jure claims. France at that point was basically just the Ile-de-France as far as where the King's writ ran.

The simplest PODs to me seem to be either victory over or butterflying of the Muslim conquests. It would be interesting to see a Muslim Arabia that is beaten back by both the Persians and the Romans and turns south, colonising africa even more than IOTL. Later the Turks take over and are assimilated into Persia. Middle East remains tripolar for much longer between Christian Rome, Muslim Arabia, and Persia (likely Zoroastrian but I could see it converting to a heretical variety of Christianity/Islam/a syncretism of the two or even becoming Buddhist if the Turks stay Buddhist ITTL). Thus Rome can play the Arabs and Persians off of each other enough to maintain Mare Nostrum. From there, they can slowly rebuild their influence in the West.
 
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