Effects of Constantius III not dying of 421?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 67076
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Deleted member 67076

Constantius III was a Roman military commander during the early years of the chaotic Fifth Century who became one of the most celebrated and one of the few competent figures during the period.

During much of the 410s he became the effective power behind the throne, serving as Generalissimo to Honorius and cleaning the Roman House, ending the threat of several usurpers, defeating and demobilizing the Visigothics (eventually settling them in Aquitaine), reintegrating the disparate Western Roman Armies back under central command, and generally clobbering the Alans, Silingi, Suevi and other barbarians in the region.

Despite his many achievements (and how relatively quickly he was able to do all this), I don't see him able to magically solve all the problems of the Roman state all at once, simply because the structural issues of the chaotic period between the 390s-420s were beginning to pile up.

Issues such as:

-The Western Roman Army being around 45% smaller than its 395 due to frequent civil war, invasion, cost cutting measures, etc
-The empty spots of the Roman Field Army having to be staffed with barbarian troops, fresh recruits and garrison troops not used to offensive and mobile operations
-Rome working in practice like a One Party State
-Infrastructural and agricultural damage caused from marauding barbarians.
-A mounting budget deficit caused from lack of tax collection, lower yields and marauding barbarians.
-Marauding Barbarians
-Damaging the various barbarian tribal groups in battle has the annoying habit of causing them to put aside their differences and unify, such as with the Franks, Visigoths, and Vandals
-People inevitably wanting to challenge his rule, especially if and when Honorius dies
-Honorius dying, thus prompting his promotion to the purple and ironically weakening his position, since now he is bound by imperial duties and lacks the freedom he once had to conduct operations)
-The Huns are coming, prompting even more invasions of Roman soil

And other stuff. Still, his death prompted a decade of chaos and even more civil war, usurpations and invasions until Aetius comes around in the 430s. Avoiding that might do wonders.
 
Avoiding the issues after his death is always a good thing - and in the long term makes the Romans stronger.

Considering his background, I expect him to focus on solving the armies problems - the greatest of which (to my knowledge), is getting the Senators and the Roman Elite to pay to raise another army in Italy. Getting that would be the first step to solving many of the Empires problems.

At the very least I can see that being enough to allow him to fortify Italia and make it truly safe by land - and then focusing on the Army. Preventing the urge to defect might weaken the Vandals, and make it possible to keep them trapped in Hispania, or defeat them properly. The sooner a capable general can start scattering prisoner families, the better - and that might end up selling a lot of slaves to the ERE, or asking them to take captives and resettle them far away.

Having a strong Emperor, even if his heir ends up weaker than him (but better than OTL), may help prevent Aetius and Boniface getting at each others throats and wasting resources on each other (and preventing the rise of the Vandals in Africa).

With Italia and Africa secured, and both potential places to send captives, the Roman Empire can begin to rebuild in the west.

The other issues (i.e. One Party State), are difficult, but someone elses problem, if he can shore up Italia and Africa, whilst preventing the infighting of Aetius and Boniface - then Attila won't be a fraction of the problem he was IOTL, as Italia is well fortified on the land, and Africa can support Rome by the sea.
 
Constantius III living a few more years would allow him to finish off Vandals, Alans and Suevi in Spain. Which would mean that even if Constantius dies middle/late 420s and a civil war breaks out, there are no Vandals in Spain to invade Africa.
And leaving Africa safe and Spain relatively safe will mean more taxes to pay for army to defend Italy and Gaul against Huns and Goths.
 
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