Justinian I restore the western roman empire?

What if, instead of simply retaking the roman empire...Justianian decides to spilt the newly retaken land into a western and eastern empire?

And in this timeline, there is very little devastation of Italy?

Bonus point if Belisarius is named as the western empire, and allow the western empire to survive past the medivial age.

P.S. This IS an AH challenge.
 
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IF Belisarius is allowed (and willing) to accept the Ostrogoth crown in 540, he'll have a nice powerbase as the new Western Emperor.

(Now some wishful thinking)
With the Ostrogoth army and some Roman units from the East, he can then take on the Visigoths in Spain and the Burgundians across the Alps. IIRC the Ostrogoth kingdom included Dalmatia, so that's relatively easy to retake.

Belisarius will have some 25 years until his death to accomplish this. Militarily he's up to the task, but I don't know if hew has the political accumen to keep the new Western Empire in one piece.

One thing to keep in mind is that in this scenario, without destroying Italy in several decades of war, it will be a great source of revenue for Belisarius.
 
With what money??? Imperial Treasury was empty by that time... Italy was ravaged from constant wars...
Actually one of Justinian's successors thought of splitting the Empire but he changed his mind... Emperor Tiberius II contemplayrd the idea of granting the Eastern lands of the Empire to Mauricius and Western parts to Germanus...
Plus the Empire after Justinian's plague was in need for grain from both Carthage and Egypt so no Emperor could afford of giving one of them away...
 
With what money??? Imperial Treasury was empty by that time... Italy was ravaged from constant wars...
Actually one of Justinian's successors thought of splitting the Empire but he changed his mind... Emperor Tiberius II contemplayrd the idea of granting the Eastern lands of the Empire to Mauricius and Western parts to Germanus...
Plus the Empire after Justinian's plague was in need for grain from both Carthage and Egypt so no Emperor could afford of giving one of them away...

Which is why I mention there is LESS devastion of Italy.
 
In the long term, simply allowing the western roman empire to survive as a state, no matter how small can help...IF the catholic church is relinked to the WRE.
 
Plus Belissarius was too loyal to proclaim himself Emperor...

A sceanrio whereby Justinian was 'convinced' to let belissarius become the western emperor...

Perhaps a dream with Justinian being ordered by god to grant belissarius the title of the western roman emperor?
 
A sceanrio whereby Justinian was 'convinced' to let belissarius become the western emperor...

Perhaps a dream with Justinian being ordered by god to grant belissarius the title of the western roman emperor?

In my opinion even if he had such a dream Theodora would have persuaded him not to do it...
 
Perhaps Justinian wants the empire split because he can readily see the problems with trying to keep all of it under rule from Constantinople. Let Belisarius have his 'fun'; I'll keep the East with all the money. If Belisarius can make it work, good for him.

Who kept Justinian in line after Theadora died?
 
Well...if the franks and goths and even VENICE is able to reestablish Italy into a very developed place, I fail to see why can't the western empire survive without the grain from carthage and etc.


Just having the western empire surivive in a reduced form, until Italy reach for the renissiance, the western empire can survive.

No one is saying that the western empire needs to be concerned with the politics in western europe, like the wars between france and england, as well as the wars in germany.


And having a western empire around will butterfly away the HRE.


And having the catholic church linked directly to the western empire can help, given it HAS worked out in OTL, where it is possible to have a catholic church pope within the WRE.


No one is saying that this reborn western empire NEEDS to retake every land that once belong to the western empire.


Taking control of Italy itself can help to solve things.



If venice and Milian can become rich as a trading nation state, I fail to see why can't a WRE that control Italy become rich again through trading.
 
With less people alive not enough grain is produced... and with less grain production there is a food shortage especially in Constantinople... As a result of that unrest would grow due to famine and Justinian wouldnt risk another Nika riots incident... Carthage could replenish somehow the grain production lost in Egypt by the plague... Alexandria and Nile were smashed by the plague since the disease started from there... Carthage on the other hand wasnt that ravaged from disease and could provide grain in order to keep ERE safe from riots and famine...
 
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