Fortress Rome

Is it possible for Rome to set up a line of defense in northern Italy/ Alps area and hold off the collapse of the Empire. All other areas of the Empire are given up, it is acknowledged that the Romans currently don't have the means to retake them


Possibly pull all still loyal legionaires back to Italy, establish (or having had established) forts in key passes in the alps, pull the remaining navy into the waters directly around Italy.



I got the idea from this pic.
 
Maybe the thread title should be "Fortress Italy", given what you are proposing.

Oter than that: this is an interesting one, certainly, but I'm afraid I can't offer an opinion one way or another, since I don't know enough about the period.
 
It would take quite a large sum of cash to construct and man such a barrier. The further you go into the collapse of the Empire, the harder it is to maintain Italy's defenses.
 
And of course the Roman provinces might not agree.

IMO it's actually easier to get this with a seperatist state in, say, Spain or North Africa.
 
The use of boats to bypass the wall comes to mind.

I was thinking that the Roman navy could set up some sort of patrol system; coast, to Corsica, to Sardinia, to Sicily; each being seperate from the others, patrolling their own waters.

And also, weren't the Eastern Romans still in a pretty good position? They could patrol the Adriatic with a sparse western Roman contingent. Warranted that it would all hinge on if they give a shit or not.

It would take quite a large sum of cash to construct and man such a barrier. The further you go into the collapse of the Empire, the harder it is to maintain Italy's defenses.

As to the construction of the fort system, I thought it would be built before the collapse, say the legions skip a beat and a barbarian group gets into northern Italy, they don't attack Rome mind you but they get close to Rome, they do a bit of pillaging, but are quickly wiped out. This spurs the Emperor (any would do) to never let this happen again.

The walls are constructed, they're manned for a decade, and then abandoned, but aren't dismantled. They're a drain on taxes and the problems are at the borders not the Alps right? Well jump ahead and those abandoned forts, with whatever kind of renovations are affordable, are the last line of defense.
 
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