hello alt history.com!

I have viewed this site and plenty of its timelines for ages, and now I would like to make a timeline of my own! i'm thinking of doing a Rome survives timeline with a pod of just before the 455 sack of Rome by the vandals. However I am not a fan of the asb and would like to make this as realistically as possible. That said I want a untied roman civilization (with Latin still vulgarizing a lot, just not as much as otl) with a Vistula-Dniester frontier by 1500. Is that realistically possible? I'm thinking along the lines that from a starting point of around 450, it will take until around 570-600 to get Italy fully revived and repopulated with good leadership and decisions.

After that point its highly ambiguous. but I have great plans! Please help me do this as realistically as possible! Now for your thoughts!:) Start posting! But keep in mind that this is not the actuall timeline thread, this will be where I can figure out what I need to do to write properly.

Thanks to basileus gregorios, basileus444, and janus antonius (superpowers) for your alt histories! they have been a huge, huge inspiration for this upcoming work!
 
Would it not be much easier to prevent Rome from falling so far in the first place if you wish for it to expand further? The WRE at this point would be lucky to survive, let alone restore its former glory, drive back the barbarians and then expand into their lands.
 
yes it would, but superpowers has that covered :(

So I want a unique premise, So i don't copy off someone else. Plus, superpowers has original roman culture surviving. I'm not going to do that, ttl's roman culture will be much closer to modern Italian than old roman culture. For example, ttl's Latin will have only 3 cases as opposed to 6-7 in classical Latin.

come on people, say your thoughts!

thanks and good bacon,
Swagmiester
 
Well, the best POD at around this time is to prevent the assassination of Flavius Aetius in 454 by Valentinian at the behest of Maximus. Now Aetius is, if nothing else, a fantastic politician as much as general. So if he can survive a year or 2 more, he may be able to manipulate things in such a way so Valentinian III dies a silent death and Aetius' son, Gaudentius (who was 15 at his death in 455) is declared emperor. I'm not sure how well that will go down with Marcian in the east though....

Another one, and probably the last best chance for the empire, is having Majorian successfully invade and retake North Africa putting the empire in a much better financial position and of course solidifying Majorian's rule enough that he can dump Ricimer.

Any POD that has Maximus still as emperor is almost guaranteed to not avert the Vandal sack, so I think the best POD if it must be before the Vandal sack is a surviving Aetius.
 

Seraphiel

Banned
Well, the best POD at around this time is to prevent the assassination of Flavius Aetius in 454 by Valentinian at the behest of Maximus. Now Aetius is, if nothing else, a fantastic politician as much as general. So if he can survive a year or 2 more, he may be able to manipulate things in such a way so Valentinian III dies a silent death and Aetius' son, Gaudentius (who was 15 at his death in 455) is declared emperor. I'm not sure how well that will go down with Marcian in the east though....

Another one, and probably the last best chance for the empire, is having Majorian successfully invade and retake North Africa putting the empire in a much better financial position and of course solidifying Majorian's rule enough that he can dump Ricimer.

Any POD that has Maximus still as emperor is almost guaranteed to not avert the Vandal sack, so I think the best POD if it must be before the Vandal sack is a surviving Aetius.

I totally agree, a surviving Aetius at this point is essential for the Western Empire just surviving, let alone thriving later on.

Aetius probably could defeat the Vandals if they still decide to invade Italy which depending on the ease (or difficulty) of the victory could give the Western Empire a lot of breathing room. Maybe enough for Gaudentius to become a strong Emperor capable of holding some semblance of Western Imperial authority in his Empire.
 
how exactly should I do this?
My way of getting Italy back on its feet is probably going to involve an eccentric pope that gets himself crowned emperor, and tells Italy that god has stayed his had and the barbarians will eventually fall, he and his successors will be reviving Italy until about 600 a.d., when the grand reconquest starts. I think they will go in this order: north Africa (i'm thinking the vandal state will have collapsed by then and it will be in anarchy) by 620, Dalmatia and Hispania by 750, a period of civil war and weakness, and then Gaul by 1000. the total reunification with the east will come much later. my excuse for the roman identity surviving so long will be that the barbarians anger the roman population by taking the best land and cities for settler colonies, as well as somewhat more stability and less destruction of infrastructure, Keeping the Gallo and Spanish Romans angry and united. Islam will be butterflied, but for the sake of amusement their will still be Arabian hordes, just later on. What do you all think?

thanks for your help!

thanks and good bacon,
Swagmiester
 
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Well my take would be that Valentinian is assassinated before he kills Aetius. Gaudentius is proclaimed Emperor. Then Aetius with help from Majorian and Ricimer regains Carthage and stabilises the Danube Limes. However there will be problems down the line especially with the Goths (both Visi and Ostro) and the Franks. Also Marcian will not be best pleased!!
In other words much as previously posted.
(This will be background to what is happening in Britannia in my thread)
 
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