Gothic war

This is an idea of TL that I could pursue later.
POD: Athalaric doesn't die in 534 AD.
There is no Gothic war.
Stronger than in OTL, the ERE is able to put up with the wars against Persia. Spania is still given to the Byzantines. The new province will be better defended than in OTL.
In the Balkans, Justinian uses the Avars against the Bulgars.
The Lombards settle in Illyria and Pannonia. The Padan plain is frequently invaded.
Helped by the Byzantines, the Aksumites conquer much of southwestern Arabia (Yemen, Asir, southern Hedjaz).
 
No specially. I have imagined that the Byzantines would support the Aksumites against the Sassanids. The taking of Mecca would be only a consequence of this alliance.
There could be an 'alternate' version of Islam.
 
In this idea, the Gothic war is delayed. When the invasion would occur, the Ostrogoths would be very weakened by the frequent lombard raids to face an invasion. The conquest would be far easier than in OTL.
 
I wrote a "no Gothic war" TL, though I've yet to publish it. The essential POD is that Justinian is overthrown and driven into exile by Nika, and, after a brief period of rule by Anastasius' nephew Hypatius, Belisarius becomes Emperor. Though several Gothic wars do break out, they don't end in the collapse of the kingdom, with the Goths consolidating control over northern and central Italy in exchange for accepting Constantinople's interference in the politics of the city of Rome itself. Sicily and southern Italy come back under direct Imperial rule too, as does Africa.

I'll publish the TL at some stage, but for now, this is the map I devised for it.

576AD Nika!.png
 
Who controls the area to the south of western not-Egypt (Is it all Cyrenacia to the ERE?)

The largely desert if memory serves region of "does anyone actually live there besides a few hermits and similar crazies?"...though since it is part of modern Egypt, it at some point got settled.
 
Without the gothic war, the Franks would not be able to conquer the Burgundian kingdom, an ally of the Ostrogoths. But the lombard invasion of the padan plain would weaken Italy, and Clothar would take advantage of this to invade Burgundy, then eventually Provence.

I was thinking, for my proposal of TL, to a map (approximate) like this:
justinian-A.png
Europe around 560 AD

justinian-A.png
 
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justinian-B.png

An approximative map of Europe as I think it around 580's. With Spania extended to the Pyrenean mountains, what would be the relations between the ERE and the Frankish kingdoms?And in Italia, with an Ostrogothic kingdom reduced to central and southern Italia plus Sicily, what would be the relation with the ERE? A client-state?

I think to begin the posting around mid-august.

justinian-B.png
 
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