Orientalized Rome

What if Rome and the Italian peninsula had further adapted to the "Oriental culture" ? It depends on the timeframe, what culture they adapt to. Whether North African, Egyptian, Persian, Crescent is up to you. Can be Helleneized, though. Hellenic culture already had manifestated in the regions we call Orient. Orientalization scenario can also happen even before Rome come to power as an Empire and before full Hellenization of the Romans. Can also happen during late Antiquity. Also the Eastern Roman Empire can be used for the pod.
OTL there had been fears concerning an Orientalization of Rome through marriage of Antonius and Cleopata and the manifestation of an Eastern monarchic despotic kingdom. Cesar might have had similiar ambitions. Later cults from various provinces spread across the Empire.
 
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The southern half of the peninsula was Hellenic in culture for a very long time; there are still a handful of Greek speakers in Calabria today.

An ERE that took the entire peninsula and held it for a few centuries could lead to this, but it seems pretty difficult by the time the ERE had "gone Greek," which also seems to be after your cutoff point.
 
Oh, a Carthaginian victory in the Punic Wars seems like a fairly easy way to accomplish this now that I think about it.

If they had won a war and established Carthaginian hegemony over southern Italy based out of Sicily it could plausibly eventually cover the whole peninsula.
 
The southern half of the peninsula was Hellenic in culture for a very long time; there are still a handful of Greek speakers in Calabria today.

An ERE that took the entire peninsula and held it for a few centuries could lead to this, but it seems pretty difficult by the time the ERE had "gone Greek," which also seems to be after your cutoff point.

I wonder what would have happened vis. Pope with an Eastern Roman Italy. I don't think the Byzantines would care much one way or the other, but I'm not sure how much the Catholic powers would like having a Pope under someone's control. Would the Pope relocate somewhere else (Mainz? Aachen? Northern Italy?) Would there be a Pope in Rome and a different Pope elsewhere?
 
I wonder what would have happened vis. Pope with an Eastern Roman Italy. I don't think the Byzantines would care much one way or the other, but I'm not sure how much the Catholic powers would like having a Pope under someone's control. Would the Pope relocate somewhere else (Mainz? Aachen? Northern Italy?) Would there be a Pope in Rome and a different Pope elsewhere?

With an early enough PoD, speaking of Catholic versus Orthodox may not ever be an issue ;)

There was actually a period in OTL when the Pope was basically selected by the Byzantines when the schismatic issues weren't there yet; if they never cropped up or didn't last then that pattern could have held.
 
They did, even if you only consider the WRE. Dominate emperors acting like a basileus, the bloated administration and pomp of courts, the use of eunuchs for literally everything (an Anatolian and Egyptian and Persian influence, I think). So this challenge is OTL.
 
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