Goths Sack Constantinople

What if instead of heading west and sacking Rome the Goths sack Constantinople anywhere around 408-412 AD? Could this have led to an eastern empire collapse?
 
I'm fairly certian it would be easier to attack Rome than Constananople.
Constanaople was more heavily guarded than Rome Afterall.
As for if they did, i suppose the Muslims might be able to capture it sooner.
 
Well, I do not know how exactly they could get past the walls but I am asking what the effects of this event would be, and whether it could have prolonged or saved the western empire, and if it could have brought on the fall of the east.
 
Well, I do not know how exactly they could get past the walls but I am asking what the effects of this event would be, and whether it could have prolonged or saved the western empire, and if it could have brought on the fall of the east.

ok, seeing the Western half was under attack by other Germanic tribes, if the Goths sacked Constantinoples, then i may lead to a total colapse of the Roman Empire, no Byzantium, and Possibly the Ottoman Empire would reach even farther into Europe.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
If the Goths* sacked Constatinoble, they would likely settle in Thrace and we would see Gothic Kingdom there. While the East Roman authorities would move to Alexandria.

*Are we speaking about Visi- or Ostrogoths?
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Visigoths.

When we would likely see a Kingdom centred along the Easten Donau but with possesion on both side (in Rumania likely easten Wallachia and both Romanian Moldavia and Moldavian Moldavia), they would likely keep Constatinoble, but I doubt they would have Greece proper and anatolia. Likely we would see Anatolia occupied by another Germanic or Sarmatian group, while Greece proper would stay in the hands of Alexandria. We could see the state survive at least to the Bulgarian invasion (or some other steppenation), but we could also see it survive beyond that.
 
Sacking Constantinople does not guarantee the instant collapse of the ERE (it could mean so in the long run) nor that the Visigoths will held the city for longer. The way I see it is that the Goths will be eventually bought with their own kingdom in the Balkans or even Anatolia, like it happened in the West, so they will not migrate into the WRE. But it would mean a fatal blow for the ERE anyway, so you can imagine how an even more debilitated Byzantium will respond to the latter Hunnic invasion.

Meanwhile, in the West Stilico can held both the Rhine frontier and his own honour, so he's not executed. And with the Huns more concentrated in the East, maybe they don't bother to go West either.

As for how it could be done, there is an obvious answer: Treason.
 
Top