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I decided to try and recreate this TL which failed so horribly the first time. this time will try to write better and longer updates along with a more plausible TL.
A gigantic earthquake rocks Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The great walls of the city are damaged tremendously as is the city itself. Confusion occupies Byzantium, fires start, looters and criminal’s rampage, and Attila gets word of it through a few very fast spies and scouts. This is too good and offer to pass he thinks and so he lets his siege equipment stay where it is and using the customary Hunnic speed rushes to the much weakened city. Once they reach the city, with its walls still not rebuilt, hell ensues (for the Romans). Hunnic soldiers attack without mercy plundering, killing raping and in general destroying everything. Theodosius manages to escape by ship and watches from his swaying warship the destruction of his city. Vowing revenge he lands in Asia Minor and plans on creating an army to overthrow the barbarian king. But the city had not fallen without a fight and Attilas army is greatly weakened and has grown a little lazy, after all they now have more than enough loot, and isn’t that the only reason they came to fight anyways? So Attila the Hun proclaims Byzantium his capital city and prepares to consolidate his massive empire. It is 448 AD and the world is altered forever.
After the Sack
Huns at the small Battle of Constantinople
Fighting continues in Greece between Greek and Hunnic troops with Athens being captured by the Huns exactly 6 months after the fall of Byzantium. The Peloponnesus manages to stave off the Huns long enough for Theodosius to reinforce it from Anatolia and the small peninsula remains free from barbarian rule. Attila renames Constantinople, Attilopolis (actually it was something different but this is how modern scholars have come to name it after the Hunnic conquest) and makes plans for building navy, due to constant Greek raids along his coastlines. Theodosius makes Antioch his capital and props up eastern border defenses for it seems the Persian is on the move again.