An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania

Shit.

But I hope they will at least integrate Egypt a little further, otherwise It will be kinda dumb. This would realistically be the first priority of any sane emperor who gets the throne, more conquests are meaningless before solving this issue.

The way things are now both the Egyptians and the Ethiopians can unilaterally fuck up the Indian trade route if they go rogue, not a very comfortable situation.
The thing is Egypt has tried breaking free before, didn't work because Rhome can pretty easily fuck them up because of how many troops they have stationed in the despotate and a shit ton of bases in the their direct holding of alexandria. Ethiopia has no reason whatsoever to mess with Rhome they rely so heavly on them for trade that Gondor would basically be shooting itself in the foot
 

Femto

Banned
The thing is Egypt has tried breaking free before, didn't work because Rhome can pretty easily fuck them up because of how many troops they have stationed in the despotate and a shit ton of bases in the their direct holding of alexandria. Ethiopia has no reason whatsoever to mess with Rhome they rely so heavly on them for trade that Gondor would basically be shooting itself in the foot
If the have that much control with boots in the grouns why is the despotate semi-independent?
 
Maybe when Egypt inevitably fucks up again or connives with latin powers then that's the time Rome will think that some despotates are too dangerous to be left alone. Sicily is a different matter but Egypt after all is the gateway to the Rome eastern teritories, that's why I'm against having egypt being independent. Soft power alone won't help the empire if the Despotate thinks it can get away from pissing Rome off. Rome better start re-integrating egypt otherwise they'll face a heap of troubles if one day they can't support their far-east territories.
Absolutely. If the Empire don't fuck the Despotate of Egypt, the Despotate will fuck the Empire. Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing in the long run, if a Despot grows really powerful and usurps the throne.
Shit.

But I hope they will at least integrate Egypt a little further, otherwise It will be kinda dumb. This would realistically be the first priority of any sane emperor who gets the throne, more conquests are meaningless before solving this issue.

The way things are now both the Egyptians and the Ethiopians can unilaterally fuck up the Indian trade route if they go rogue, not a very comfortable situation.

If you integrate Egypt all you do is get the very problems you want to avoid.

Copts will hate losing power and integration will cause a tremendous amount of social problems that will result in tremendous costs to put down as well as lost loyalty that will probably never recover. The Despotates exist to alleviate the administrative burden placed upon the empire by the large territory it controls and co-opt the local population to the empire by placating them with essentially meaningless autonomy. The moment you remove the Despotate you get a massive population of unruly people who will GLADLY conspire with foreign powers to get back their lost autonomy. They would see Rhome as an enemy, not an ally or patron, if they revoked their autonomy.

Meanwhile if you just let them keep some limited self rule you have a loyal population of imperial subjects with a stake in the continued success of the empire who will and have gladly laid down their lives for it, not to mention opened their coinpurses and laboured in the Egyptian sun. If either of you think Egypt is somehow not going to be loyal you're ignoring both its continuous track record of aligning closely in foreign policy to Constantinople and the repercussions of what you're suggesting.
 
The rise of nationalism or nationalist-like movements.

The core territories are mostly Greek and getting even more so with every passing year, Sicily relatively less so but again going in the same direction and even the Eastern kapetanates are getting integrated. Somehow I don't see how nationalism would be much of a problem when you are having a mostly homogenous population to begin with. As for Egypt they are by now effectively a Copt ethnic state owning their existence to the rest of the empire. What do they gain from upsetting the applecart?
 

Femto

Banned
. Somehow I don't see how nationalism would be much of a problem when you are having a mostly homogenous population to begin with.
If they become really homogenous then there's no reason to keep the Despotates as they currently are in the future instead of pushing for further centralization.

I'm not saying they don't need to have autonomy, I'm saying they need to be at least part of the same State. The Copts don't even dislike the Greeks, the Empire just need to treat them better than the English treated the Irish OTL.

Hell, even the English did find a way to balance a State between them, the French and the Irish in this same timeline.
 
Last edited:
If they become really homogenous then there's no reason to keep the Despotates as they currently are in the future instead of pushing for further centralization.

I'm not saying they don't need to have autonomy, I'm saying they need to be at least part of the same State. The Copts don't even dislike the Greeks, the Empire just need to treat them better than the English treated the Irish OTL.

Hell, even the English did find a way to balance a State between them, the French and the Irish in this same timeline.
How are they not part of the same state now? How are the Triunes somehow different? England, France, and Ireland are separate kingdoms.
 
If they become really homogenous then there's no reason to keep the Despotates as they currently are in the future instead of pushing for further centralization.

I'm not saying they don't need to have autonomy, I'm saying they need to be at least part of the same State. The Copts don't even dislike the Greeks, the Empire just need to treat them better than the English treated the Irish OTL.

Hell, even the English did find a way to balance a State between them, the French and the Irish in this same timeline.

I don't see the Sicilian despotate staying separate in the long run, the Carthagian/Dalmatian ones are negligible as for the Copts better to have them in their separate state than for them to be a constant problem like they were prior to the Arab conquest. Now East Asian despotates if they come to being will be a more interesting question.
 
I know it’s a bit of an alt-history wank, but it would be great have Rhome either directly rule or be in close association with (like the UK is with Canada and Australia) the Despotates through the modern era. Autonomy is obviously a given in the case of annexation, but the ever-present Muslim threat could plausibly lead Egypt or Carthage back into the fold — Sicily seems relatively self-sufficient enough, but is ethnically and culturally Greek-dominated unlike the former two.
 
Last edited:
I know it’s a bit of an alt-history wank, but it would be great have Rhome either directly rule or be in close association with (like the UK is with Canada and Australia) the Despotates through the modern era. Autonomy is obviously a given in the case of annexation, but the ever-present Muslim threat could plausibly lead Egypt or Carthage back into the fold — Sicily seems relatively self-sufficient enough, but is ethnically and culturally Greek-dominated unlike the former two.
That is already the plan from what B444 has said. A decentralized federal empire would be exactly that.
 
We believe the Albanians are a largely loyal and rural population in the Epirote province. As for the Bulgarians, well let's just say that Basil II would be very approving of the end result.
To add to this, Albanians live as far south as the Peloponnese and Boetia, the population is mostly similar to OTL Arvanites and Cham Albanians since unlike OTL there was no mass conversion to Islam that provided a distinct community from Greek and slavic neighbours. They've been religiously and culturally integrated into a Greek-speaking polity that favours light touch assimilation so it's likely these communities self-identify as Rhoman, simply not Greek.
 
I would love to expand on the point once I'm back in front of my computer, but nationalism - if it develops in any recognizable form at all - is unlikely to make headway in the Roman sphere. It's a pan-national empire with a dominant religion and preferred language, but it’s been pan national for a long time now, and its emperors from numerous backgrounds (a tradition they can trace all the way back to the 1st century) certainly reinforce that image. It feels like nationalism is going to be a very peripheral thing ITTL, and I'd go so far as to say that it'll become a bit of a chicken or egg question about the buffer and border states/tribes.
 
is it possible that the Rhomans could bring back helmets like this for ceremonial purposes?
 

Attachments

  • 108-500x500.jpg
    108-500x500.jpg
    30.7 KB · Views: 172
There isn't a single OTL example where it didn't happen?
Fair, but this isn't OTL. Cultural development is extremely different and nationalism is still an uncertain beast at least two centuries away. "Full independent" is likely never going to happen based on the style of empire B444 has led towards. High autonomy sure but a federal empire would absolutely have a unified foreign policy.
 
Top