Roman World War: East vs. West

I imagine that there was at least one point at which this could have happened. For example, what if Odoacer, instead of saying he was acting under the interests of the Constantinople court, actually declared himself as Roman Emperor and tried to establish the Roman system back to where it had been in say, 400 AD, by pushing out some barbarians (like himself?) and just acted as if nothing had changed in Rome, and he was just another general who was vying for power. No Kingdom of Italy, yet at least.

The ERE would see this as an insult, and would have a cassis belli to at least overthrow Odoacer and put in some puppet as “King of Italy”, perhaps annexing a couple of regions while they were at it.
 
So the Italian Wars a century early and with a weaker casus belli on the East Romans’ part? I dunno how they would go, but there’s no genius Belisarius and Narses for the East in this scenario
 
Not really much of a world war. I'm West all the way but they're getting stomped. There's no African Campaigns of any forays into Spain, just a straight beeline to a rump WRE with a Germanic Integrated ruling class ruling over a populace that may or may not accept them. It doesn't seem this will go well for the WRE.
 

Deleted member 97083

The ERE wins the war within 2-3 years, if not faster. The WRE's revenues, recruiting base, and authority had tanked by Odoacer's time. Odoacer representing himself as a client of Constantinople was a necessary tactic to obtain some legitimacy.
 
So the Italian Wars a century early and with a weaker casus belli on the East Romans’ part? I dunno how they would go, but there’s no genius Belisarius and Narses for the East in this scenario
It wouldn’t have been a weak CB.A barbarian taking over Italy would have been a pretty good one in itself.They could have expelled Odoacer in the name of putting Nepos back on the throne.
 
I think it depends on whether Odoacer’s supporters would actually be okay with him declaring himself Emperor. The Senate was becoming irrelevant at this point, but I assume they wouldn’t think of supporting a barbarian Emperor.
 
I think it depends on whether Odoacer’s supporters would actually be okay with him declaring himself Emperor. The Senate was becoming irrelevant at this point, but I assume they wouldn’t think of supporting a barbarian Emperor.
And at that point, there is no point in not just finding a puppet emperor.
 
Historically speaking, every time this happened in the 4th and 5th centuries the West always lost.
  • Carausius and Allectus lost to Maximian and Constantius Chlorus
  • Constantine II lost to Constans and Constantius II
  • Magnentius lost to Constantius II
  • Magnus Maximus lost to Theodosius I
  • Constantine III lost to Honorius
That's at least a 0-5 batting average there.
 
Historically speaking, every time this happened in the 4th and 5th centuries the West always lost.
  • Carausius and Allectus lost to Maximian and Constantius Chlorus
  • Constantine II lost to Constans and Constantius II
  • Magnentius lost to Constantius II
  • Magnus Maximus lost to Theodosius I
  • Constantine III lost to Honorius
That's at least a 0-5 batting average there.
Does Carausius really count? Bit of a different situation there. Also, Constantine won over Licinius, and Julian technically came out on top of Constantius.

2-6, that's a respectable .333 batting average right there.

Constantine III lost to Honorius
The greatest humiliation.
 
Historically speaking, every time this happened in the 4th and 5th centuries the West always lost.
  • Carausius and Allectus lost to Maximian and Constantius Chlorus
  • Constantine II lost to Constans and Constantius II
  • Magnentius lost to Constantius II
  • Magnus Maximus lost to Theodosius I
  • Constantine III lost to Honorius
That's at least a 0-5 batting average there.
You forgot Constantine I and Julian.
 
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