Alexandrine Walls like the Theodosian ones?

elder.wyrm

Banned
What if, in addition to heavily fortifying Constantinople, a later Roman Emperor decided to similarly fortify Alexandria?

ancient-alexandria-map.jpg


As can be seen, Alexandria existed, at this time, protected on several sides by water. Combined with a well-built wall and an easily protected harbor, Alexandria could be just as impenetrable a city-fortress as Constantinople was. Properly manned and supplied by sea, Alexandria would be just as impossible for a besieging army to take. Also similar to Constantinople, Alexandria is at a key locus between two important parts of the Empire -- Egypt and North Africa. Without capturing Alexandria first, it's dumb to try to go after North Africa because you're always risking an enemy landing an army at your back.

This will end up being important very quickly. I imagine the constructive effort would have enough butterflies that the wars of centuries later -- the climax of the Persian Wars specifically -- would not occur in all the same exact details. However, I think similar circumstances would arise eventually almost definitely. The Romans would eventually have a moment of weakness, and the Persians would eventually take advantage of such a moment.

However, this time they'd be stopped at Alexandria. IOTL Alexandria held out for a year under Persian siege. How would things change if it simply never fell?

And this is going to have a huge effect on whatever Arab migration comes out of Arabia, whether based on Islam or not.

So, how about it?
 
I'm not sure that would be a good idea. Historically, the people most interested in conquering Alexandria were Roman emperors. If Alexandria had the fortifications to withstand a long siege, it would become the one place from which you could all but automatically take out an emperor. So I would expect there to be more usurpers from Egypt following their construction. A fortified city this strong would, of course, also require a large garrison. Especially if it were done early, that would make for interesting command structure tweaks to prevent any unwanted self-promotion opportunities.
 
Very good point. You'd probably end up with two successor Roman states (plus the failed Western one), who might spend most of their energy fighting each other.

In fact, the POD for this is probably a different division of the empire that makes Alexandria the capital of one of the co-emperors.

I'm not sure that would be a good idea. Historically, the people most interested in conquering Alexandria were Roman emperors. If Alexandria had the fortifications to withstand a long siege, it would become the one place from which you could all but automatically take out an emperor. So I would expect there to be more usurpers from Egypt following their construction. A fortified city this strong would, of course, also require a large garrison. Especially if it were done early, that would make for interesting command structure tweaks to prevent any unwanted self-promotion opportunities.
 
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