Legitimizing the ERE

This is for a TL I'm considering, to gauge how likely it is.

Let's assume that Belisarius/Narses completes his reconquest of Italy successfully per OTL. If we assume that the story of Narses inviting the Lombards into Italy is true, do you think that the ERE could hold on to Rome, legitimizing itself (the Byzantines are often knocked as unRoman for not possessing Rome herself)

If Constantinople can maintain control of all of Italy, and this doesn't butterfly Islam away, how long would it take Italy to recover from the mauling it took during the wars twixt the ERE and the Ostrogoths? There's the almost certainly nonsense story of Rome having only a few hundred people in it after Belisarius retook it, but as I said, that's nonsense.

And if they can maintain a hold of Italy and possibly Sicily too, after Islam comes, how strong are our favorite Late Roman buddies going to be after a hundred years?

OR, would this lead to the destruction of the Empire, as they overcommit to defending Anatolia, the Balkans, and Italy from attacks by Slavs, Arabs, and Franks.
 

Philip

Donor
If we assume that the story of Narses inviting the Lombards into Italy is true, do you think that the ERE could hold on to Rome, legitimizing itself
Legitimize them to whom?

If Constantinople can maintain control of all of Italy, and this doesn't butterfly Islam away,
No, but a POD in the mid Sixth Century certainly does.

There's the almost certainly nonsense story of Rome having only a few hundred people in it after Belisarius retook it, but as I said, that's nonsense.
Probably not off by that much.

And if they can maintain a hold of Italy and possibly Sicily too, after Islam comes,
With this early a POD, there is no Muhammad, thus no Islam.
would this lead to the destruction of the Empire, as they overcommit to defending Anatolia, the Balkans, and Italy from attacks by Slavs, Arabs, and Franks.
It depends on what resources are spent on taking Italy.
 
I'm only speaking of legitimizing in the sense that historians have not treated the ERE quite fairly- they did have a direct line of Emperors right down to Augustus, though for much of their history they did not control Rome.

This is assuming the same amount of resources allocated the conquest as OTL- roughly 7,500 men for Belisarius' initial conquest, and roughly 20,000 for Narses' later governorship, as well as gold going to the Franks to make sure they don't decide to join the fun.

And I feel there's no need to immediately assume that butterflies will well, butterfly Muhammed away. It's a high probability that he won't exist, but there's no need to toss it out the window.
 
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