Emergence of a pan-Mediterranean/"Roman" Identity?

This thread is based upon an idea I saw espoused by Soverihn awhile back, that has been bouncing around my head on and off since then. Basically that, before the Arab/Islamic explosion that swept through the Middle East and Africa to create a religious divide between the states on north and south of the Med, there was an emerging "culture" of sorts that had adopted Roman-ness to varying degrees.

One of the most common reasons that Roman longevity was eclipsed by Chinese longevity on this site, is the geography of Europe not favouring one state eventually re-uniting the area. The Alps, the Pyrenees, etc, etc, all serve as natural boundaries that make it difficult for a European based state to both conquer and hold such a diverse area.

So, how viable is it to instead have a *Roman Empire based on the Mediterranean? From Late Antiquity onwards if the enormous Arab conquests are either butterflied away or directed elsewhere, could we see the emergence of a similar culture based around the Mediterranean? If the Mediterranean can remain religiously united, while the various polities around the sea eventually stabilise and adopt Roman civics, would that create the ingredients needed for a Chinese style wax and wane of *Roman state power with various polities being *Rome at some point, but the concept of Rome not being cast aside.
 
Isn't this kind of what happened OTL? We had Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, and Moscow, the Third Rome. Even in the twentieth century Italians invoked the legacy of the Roman empire and certain Greeks identified as Romans.
 
I feel like this is what the Mediterranean was headed towards until the disastrous war with Persia and the Arab explosion onto the world stage after that. It really does seem like it: The western half of the empire had fallen, only to be replaced by another empire made up of an Ostrogothic-Visigothic union. That falls apart as the eastern half of the empire retakes Italy, North Africa, and the southern Iberian coast. As ERE power wains a bit from the stress placed on it from its new conquests and the plague, their foothold in Italy and Spain is partially eroded.


Now at this point, the disastrous war with the Sassanians happens, and then the Arabs make their grand entrance. Had this not happened however, I don't see why this trend doesn't continue: More or less a stalemate in the east, with the Roman's fortunes in the west waxing and waining with the times. The Roman Empire was still as close to a superpower as the ancient world/middle ages was ever going to get up until the Arab conquests. So I think as long as you keep the trends that were going OTL, this should be fairly easy to accomplish.
 
As others point out, the Byzantines were well on their way to achieving this before the Parthian Wars or Arab invasion. Over the coming century or two, given time to cement their hold and expand it, I find it quite likely the Byzantines would have a restored Roman Empire of sorts in the Mediterranean.
 
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