Carausius' independent roman britain suvives

So for those of you who don't know in 286AD a Roman military commander of Gallic origin took control of the Roman province of Britain and ceded it from the empire then later went on to take parts of Gaul. Those who've read the Eagle of the 9th chronicles will recognise him from The Silver Branch. He was quite a popular ruler and some believe that he created the set of coastal forts and defences known as Saxon shore. However he was assassinated and Usurped by his finance minister who proved a poor leader who was unable to maintain the unity that Carausius enjoyed and lost the province back to Rome. But what if the assassination failed? What if Carausius spawned a dynasty of Emperors of Roman Britain that outlasted the oversized, spread thin and dying Western Roman empire? Carausius certainly looked to deal with many of the problems Rome faced at the time. He addressed the problem of an increasingly diluted currency by issuing a new lines much purer silver coins. He managed to protect Britain with the Saxon Wall while using a minimum number of foreign mercenaries. His smaller, more united nation would have been less susceptible to civil war.

Under those circumstances this version of a Romano-British Empire could be one of the greatest powers in western Europe's dark ages. Being able to maintain the technology of Rome and being far more united and centralised than the multitude of Saxon and Britton Kingdoms in our timeline it could have been a force great enough to rival the Carolingian empire. It would have been strong enough to fend off Norse invasions and raids through the maintenance of a strong standing navy. It could have become a centre for learning in Western Europe that could compete with Charlemagne's court. Going into the later dark ages and early medieval period it would have been even stronger than England being able to conquer much of the British Isles and possibly parts of Northern France, Flanders ect. Its also possible that it would have maintained the Celtic Church which is a historical off shoot of Catholicism which maintained many of their practices but were somewhat mixed with local mythology and did not entirely bow to the Papacy. If it remained intact to this day we'd see both Roman and Celtic culture having much more of an influence in the British Isles. Due to the Romano-British Empire forming before England and being stronger than it the British Isles may have be conquered by it much earlier. This stronger nation would also have been in a better position with conflicts with France and may retain some of the territories England once held to this day.
 
Top