true.
I guess my idea was that the Catholics in Rome might resign themselves to once more being ruled (in effect, even if Geiseric doesn't enthrone himself) by a non-Catholic.
They would resign themselves to be ruled by a non-Catholic, but even the Arian German tribal Kings who ruled them OTL maitained the legal fiction of the Empire. Theodoric, for instance, the King of the Ostrogoths, was also a Viceregent or some title, given to him by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Roman legal system was maintained and the Roman citizens were allowed to use it. The Germans were the military and maintained a parallel legal system in which Germans were tried. This dual system collapsed after Justinian's invasions, to be replaced with all people being ruled by the German system, ala the way the Franks did it, but that was much later. The point is that the Roman populace realized that they were to be ruled LOCALLY by the Germans, but that ultimate political (and, I guess, military) authority was in the Constantinople, with the REAL Roman Emperor.
The end result of my rant is that if Geiseric claiming the title of Roman Emperor would mean that he was trying to reach for a station that was quite beyond his legal and probably military reach. The Roman populace, who throughout this period of history just took it from the various German tribal kings who galavanted through their country, would not allow an Arian German barbarian to claim the Imperial regalia. They would fight/rebel and this in addition to the threat posed by other barbarian tribes (the Visigoths in Spain, the Burgundians in Southern Gaul, maybe the Huns, perhaps the Ostrogoths) would make any attempt by Geiseric a non-starter.
I agree that those issues are indeed very important...but one can hope that ways can be found around them.
(ie, for a time, all Emperors had to be Italian...later, they were ruled by Trajan, an Iberian)
Geiseric was also not just a barbarian German, he was a pirate. If you look at the Vandals under his rule it was pretty much a 30 year rape and pillage fest. He took the Western Roman Empire's fleet and sailed around the western med. The German rulers who were able to achieve long-term stable rule in Italy were smart men (maybe man, Theodoric may have been the only one) who made sure to curb the baser desires of their barbarian breathern.
hm, so either Geiseric converts (which not all Germans will appreciate), or he doesn't convert (which may stick in Romans' craws)
Exactly. Except the German won't just not appreciate it, they'll probably kill him and elect a new King. The Roman people didn't really have a military power to speak of, and would not rally to the defense of a convert German king. So basically it was stay Arian, get rich, and stay king, or convert and be killed. The choice was quite easy for German leaders to make for generations.
did he want his son or grandson to be Emperor? (he did arrange his son's marriage, after all, before the events which led to his attack on Rome)
When one reads the way that worked out, one may get the feeling that Geiseric may have used the marriage proposal as something of an excuse to just rape and pillage. He never made any move to do anything like enthrone his son or grandson. He did like using the marriage as a pretext for pillaging.
hm....Geiseric as Lord Protector of the Western Roman Empire's Empress...and if his grandson is Emperor, all the good; if his grandson isn't, then the family continues as the power behind the throne.
...at least until another family becomes the Defenders of the Emperor.
(yeah, I'm remembering the thread about how to make the Roman Empire like Japan's)
I'm would say that this is a possibility, but I don't think that Geiseric would be the German king to do it. In Constantinople there were German mercenary leaders who ended up supporting their own, Nicean Orthodox, candidates for the thrones successfully, and the same could happen here, but in the West the German leaders eventually decided that it was easier to rule in the Emperor's name (ala Theodoric) then rule through an Emperor. Thus they sent the Imperial regalia back to Constantinople.
I think the program addressed this...if you're referring to the Eastern Empire's overwhelming number of ships (many of which were burned by Vandals while on the open sea)
I am referring to those ships. If Geiseric is attempting to gain control of Italy though, he and his army and his fleet will not be present to burn the fleet. The Greeks would have the luxury of attacking where he is not and gaining a foothold in North Africa (perhaps Carthage) before Geiseric could return from Italy.
at this point, wasn't Ravenna part of the Eastern Empire?
No. It was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. And it was very, very difficult to take by force.
in any event, Geiseric might be willing to lose (temporarily?) the Empire north of the Alps, focusing instead on securing the Italian lands and keeping the breadbaskets of western North Africa.
The Empire no longer controlled the land north of the Alps. Or East of them. Or West of them. In fact the Western Empire at this point consisted of the the Barbarian tribes in Gaul, Hispania, and North Africa, and the Emperor in Italy. If Geiseric can gain control of the middle, he'll still have to deal with all of the outlying barbarian tribes. Theodoric was able to do this some years later, but I tend to think of him as rather extraordinarily capable, and since I don't place Geiseric in that category I don't think he could do it.