DBWI: Roman Empire survives in the east

What if the Germans, Alans and Huns would move further westward instead of turning south? We saw the Balkans falling first to the Goths, later to the Huns and then the Persians conquering Egypt and the Levant. In the end of the 5th century also the last Roman influence in Anatolia was gone. Let's say this scenario happens instead of the east in the west.

Like in OTL Italy would probably fall to the Vandals or maybe the Goths (but in this scenario the Romans can't reconquer it without ), the Franks carve their little state out of northern Gallia, maybe the Huns take Hispania ... (dont know what to do with Carthago, it getting conquered by the barbarians seems borderline ASB) ... Britain ends up Celtic like OTL. Everything east of the Adriatic Sea survives. I don't know how long the East can stand against the Persians but certainly longer than OTL.

After a few centuries we would probably have in the East a Latin upper class (Emperor, Princes, Nobles etc.) and a Greek and Syrian speeking lower class. I think that will be challenging for the Empire. We would for sure see revolts that destroy the empire but how long could it last? 300 or 400 years? Even longer?

My guess: not more than 200 or 300 years, then anti-roman foces would rip the Empire apart and etablish Hellenic kingdoms or duchies or something like that.

What do you think?
 
Perhaps the upper class realising that's dum to keep on being latin speakers adopt greek.
Also I guesse instead of otl with the Papacy being located at Constantinoble it's at Rome Also we might had "shivers" avoided the "Holy Roman Empire" that was based around Ukrainia OOC:OTL Ukraine IC: We might had also avoided Islam which in the end brought the end to The Western Roman empire in 1456
 
Hmm. A surviving East Rome is an intriguing idea, and one we don't see explored often enough. Still, there's one problem--geography. The Pannonian plains provide an easy invasions route right out of the German heartland, much easier than swarming across the Alps or the heavily defended Rhine, and the East is far more exposed to barbarian invasions off the steppe. Is there any sort of strategy could an East Roman Empire could adopt to deal with this? (Co-opt them and send them off to fight the Persians? That'd end well, I'm sure...)

Further afield:

Assuming the Gallic Empire falls, and we get a general westward population movement, you might see a Germanic Britain instead of a Celtic one--wasn't there a period for a few centuries when Saxon raiders were a problem?

If the Goths are headed west along with everyone else, they certainly won't get a chance to build their "Holy Roman Empire" around the Black Sea--in fact, depending on how things get shuffled, they might not end up as a naval power at all! Or maybe the legendary Gothic fleets will end up in the Western Mediterranean instead. Maybe they'll even be the ones to discover Terranova...

Will Islam even have a chance to spread if the Middle East is divided between a presumably Christian Roman Empire and Zoroastrian Persia? I don't see a peaceful mercantile faith making much headway there. Perhaps it will spread along the trade routes east to India instead...
 
You need a different diocletian logic.

Have the civil war of the 3rd century end earlier and have it end with an actual victory, not reconciliation followed by a military coup. Diocletian will still probably need to divide the empire, but rather than 4 allied states created based on positions of various legions you get 2 allied states created based on hostile frontiers. So rather than Insular Britain and Africa *including rich egypt, who had no desire to go along with the persian-punching bag of a regime in Constantinople* , along with the eastern and western empires you simply have the eastern and western halfs.

The west gets Britain and North Africa *aside from egypt*, while the east gets Egypt and the parts of the levant Julianople simply took and "sold" to the Persians. Give the Western Empire Illyria and have the Romans leave Dacia before this entire thing starts. From here you have an Eastern Empire with the wealthiest areas of the Empire with 2 frontiers. The relatively defensible north with the Mountains of eastern Illyria and the Danube, and the Desert border with Persia. The west has to deal with exposed Britain, tieing down significant military force, The Rhine-Danube border all the way to the plains of Pannonia down to Salona.

Basically Give the west a lot of useless territory as opposed to the east and integrate Egypt back into the Eastern Empire.
 
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