Challenge: Western and Eastern Roman Empires as enemies

Would it be possbile for the western and eastern Roman Empires to be enemies? I mean long-standing rivals for centuries, not a single skirmish.

A civil war doesn't count.
 
Would it be possbile for the western and eastern Roman Empires to be enemies? I mean long-standing rivals for centuries, not a single skirmish.

A civil war doesn't count.

I think so, yes. If the West never falls but becomes more "barbarian", the Byzantines adopt Greek as their primary language after a while and become more accepting of Monophysitism, I could see it happening. Constantinople is fucked if this happens though: it faces powerful enemies on both fronts.
 
Someone here started a timeline where this happens because the East (I thought it was way) embraced Markionism as their state religion, while the West kept to roughly the orthodoxy we are familiar with. Thus the vehemence of the religious conflict directly transferred into a political one, not really military actions, but with "secret services" on both sides eradicating the respective sectarians.


The postings were long, with a high level of both literary quality and disgusting bloodthirstiness. However, it ended after a couple of postings and didn't go far ...
 

Thande

Donor
Yeah, religious division is your best bet, which isn't that hard, considering how many heresies and differences of opinion there were kicking about at the time.
 
Top