Justinian goes east ?

Let's imagine. He goes after the vandalic kingdom like iotl. After that let's imagine the situation with the ostrogoths is different to the point he doesn't go to war against them and the situation with the persian led to war. If the war in east goes well for him , could he get the whole Armenia , Mesopotamia and land west of the Zagros ? The empire with these gain can sustain more easly than iotl ?
 
That's what I did when I played atilla TW Justinian mod, and then reconquered the Empire, save Britain.

As for the realities of Justinian unleashing Belasarius and Narses full bore, against the Sassanids I feel are slim. The Danubian frontier is still going to be a problem, especially with his best generals in the east. And what's the point of Africa without Sicily?

I'm no expert of the era save for my own curiosity and proper correlation of real events to the fictions written about that era. Count Belasarius I still one of my favourite historical fictions.
 
That's what I did when I played atilla TW Justinian mod, and then reconquered the Empire, save Britain.

As for the realities of Justinian unleashing Belasarius and Narses full bore, against the Sassanids I feel are slim. The Danubian frontier is still going to be a problem, especially with his best generals in the east. And what's the point of Africa without Sicily?

I'm no expert of the era save for my own curiosity and proper correlation of real events to the fictions written about that era. Count Belasarius I still one of my favourite historical fictions.
What about having Justinian give Belisarius full support and a blank cheque in conquering Italy?IOTL,Belisarius was tremendously successful even with the ridiculously meager amount of resources provided to him by Justinian.
 
I feel the question now boils down to Justinian. I don't think he could give Belasarius a blank cheque. You are talking about a man who thrice banished Belasarius. If Belasarius was not Belasarius, Justinian would have been disposed. There was also legitimacy in going west, with Rome.
 
Before Justinian went West, he fought against the Sassanids in the early years of his reign. And his Magister Militum per Orientem was Belisar. But he was not succesful. Best case you may call it a tie.

Why should this change, if he tries it again?

Actually there was another war in the East a few years later. But this time, Belisar was already busy in the West. So this time, the tie was even luckier from a roman point of view. The persian attack was repelled by local roman units (mostly limitanei).

So no! It seems that Justinians army was not able to conquer Armenia and Mesopotamia and hold it.

PS: Interestingly, after the limitanei proved, that they were no 2nd class soldiers, Justinian finally abandoned the limitanei during his later military reform.
 
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