Tanukh Arabs resettled in Roman Moesia

An idea I had for the longest for a TLIAD is the Eastern Roman Empire inflicting a decisive victory against Queen Mavia and the Tanukh confederation during their uprising against Valens. The Tanukh are stopped from making much advances beyond their advances in Palestine and Phoenicia; the survivors are put at the mercy of Valens. Slavery or extermination being a likely fate. However, the Emperor Valens finds the Tanukh to have made a good enough impression to be used as foederati for his campaign against the Gothic king Fritigern.

He cuts a deal with Mavia. The Tanukh and their allies would serve in Valen's army and assist in destroying the Goths. In exchange, the Tanukh confederation will settle along the Danube, repopulate and makeup for the losses to the Gothic raids and serve as a barrier against future barbarian excursions into Roman land. The Tanukh calvary assist the Romans in keeping the Gothic calvary at bay while the main Roman force annihilates the Gothic camp, killing and enslaving thousands.

The Goths become a historical footnote in the Roman annals while the Tanukhs eek out a semi-sedentary existence. In due time, their military exploits as Constantinople's first line of defense against the barbarian hordes time after time earns them citizenship. St. Moses becomes bishop to the Tanukh Arabs in Roman Moesia, converting thousands. Valens' victory is short-lived and is assassinated by the former consul Victor.

Flavius Victor Augustus, quickly takes over the Empire with little opposition. As Master of Horses and a former Consul, Victor has the support of the army and his alliance with the Balkan Arab queen Mavia through his marriage with her daughter Chasidat prevents any potential opponents from rising up. Without an heir of his own, he appoints Theodosius as his co-Augustus, also a prominent figure in the East. The assistance of the Tanukh in Victor's usurpation of power gives the opportunity for many Arabs to enter in Victor's inner circle, upsetting some in the Roman upper class.

What say you, AH.com? Bad idea?
 
An idea I had for the longest for a TLIAD is the Eastern Roman Empire inflicting a decisive victory against Queen Mavia and the Tanukh confederation during their uprising against Valens. The Tanukh are stopped from making much advances beyond their advances in Palestine and Phoenicia; the survivors are put at the mercy of Valens. Slavery or extermination being a likely fate. However, the Emperor Valens finds the Tanukh to have made a good enough impression to be used as foederati for his campaign against the Gothic king Fritigern.

He cuts a deal with Mavia. The Tanukh and their allies would serve in Valen's army and assist in destroying the Goths. In exchange, the Tanukh confederation will settle along the Danube, repopulate and makeup for the losses to the Gothic raids and serve as a barrier against future barbarian excursions into Roman land. The Tanukh calvary assist the Romans in keeping the Gothic calvary at bay while the main Roman force annihilates the Gothic camp, killing and enslaving thousands.

The Goths become a historical footnote in the Roman annals while the Tanukhs eek out a semi-sedentary existence. In due time, their military exploits as Constantinople's first line of defense against the barbarian hordes time after time earns them citizenship. St. Moses becomes bishop to the Tanukh Arabs in Roman Moesia, converting thousands. Valens' victory is short-lived and is assassinated by the former consul Victor.

Flavius Victor Augustus, quickly takes over the Empire with little opposition. As Master of Horses and a former Consul, Victor has the support of the army and his alliance with the Balkan Arab queen Mavia through his marriage with her daughter Chasidat prevents any potential opponents from rising up. Without an heir of his own, he appoints Theodosius as his co-Augustus, also a prominent figure in the East. The assistance of the Tanukh in Victor's usurpation of power gives the opportunity for many Arabs to enter in Victor's inner circle, upsetting some in the Roman upper class.

What say you, AH.com? Bad idea?
I don't think this is a bad idea. Substituting the role the Goths played in the late Roman Empire with that of the (Tanukh) Arabs. That is very interesting.
I am of the opinion that the Arabs had a great potential as an excellent military force since the time of Zenobia. And in this ATL they might be a good counterbalance to the Germanic invasions and phoederati.

The other consequence of this ATL scenario is when the Huns appear in Europe the Romans would have the Arabs in their army who are better suited for this kind of warfare to oppose them.

Having a lot of Tanuch Arabs in the army might lead to the other Arabs used for the same purposes.
The Roman Empire heavily relying on the Arab phoederati and the Arab mercenaries in this ATL (instead of the Germanic ones in OTL) might have much bigger impact on the development of Arabia, meaning its early Christianization as an obvious effect.
So Arabia as a powerbase for the Roman army would mean some Romanization of Arabia as some of the Arab mercenaries would return home to Arabia after serving in the Roman army for 10-20 years or so.

Having Arabized army (instead of Germanized army) would mean the Romans doing better in their wars again Persia as the Germans were not doing too great in this terrain and weather against highly mobile opponent.

So this POD might have a positive effect on the fate of the Roman civilization, at least on the Eastern Roman Empire.
 
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Flavius Victor Augustus, quickly takes over the Empire with little opposition. As Master of Horses and a former Consul, Victor has the support of the army and his alliance with the Balkan Arab queen Mavia through his marriage with her daughter Chasidat prevents any potential opponents from rising up. Without an heir of his own, he appoints Theodosius as his co-Augustus, also a prominent figure in the East. The assistance of the Tanukh in Victor's usurpation of power gives the opportunity for many Arabs to enter in Victor's inner circle, upsetting some in the Roman upper class.

What say you, AH.com? Bad idea?
Everything else is good and I like the idea a lot, but this is...not possible I don't think. For starters, Theodosius was still in exile in Spain at the time, and he was only sent over as emperor to the east because Gratian needed someone who he believed he could trust and was a sound general-Theodosius's father was close to Valentinian and both father and son showed good military skill-so Gratian saw it as fitting to recall Theodosius and prop him up in the east while he dealt with domestic matters in the west.

ITTL, Gratian is now the senior emperor and his uncle just got murdered by The only Victor I can find existing at this time is the western usurper who was the son of Magnus Maximus, but in the event he was just a placeholder for *insert generic consul assisinates emperor* he'd have a hard time getting anywhere anyway-the Magister Officiorum if no one else would have easily been able to deal with him, and even if he gets past that, Gratian will not stand by and recognize his uncle's murderer as emperor, and the legions are probably more loyal to the Valentinian line than to a civilian.

A far better way to do this is have this assassin murder Valens, but have the magister officiorum clear him out too, with Gratian deciding ultimately on appointing his kid brother emperor in the east with said magister officiorum being the de facto power behind the throne (I'm thinking the same way Stilicho was with Honorius). Go back a few years before this assassination, and it turns out this guy happened to be the man Valens tapped to administer the population transfer of the Tanukh to the Danube. Thus he made connections with some Tanukh nobles, and brings them into his inner circle during his regency.
 
Would a larger number of Arabs in the army, and a greater number of Christian & Romanized Arabs in the empire overall make conversion of the Berbers/Mauri more likely or widespread? The Romans seem to have had a great deal of trouble assimilating the interior of North Africa, while the Arab conquests later on were far more effective. Might Roman Arabs be an effective intermediary?

I can't quite recall exactly when this occurred, but wasn't the gold-salt trade between the Niger valley and North Africa fostered by the introduction of new camel breeds from the Middle East and Central Asia? A greater number of Arab auxiliaries/foederati could accelerate development of that trade route by introducing superior camel caravans considerably earlier.
 
Using a defeated and still unitied ennemy as foerderati wouldn't happen. I could see them being resettled as laeti or maybe as half-coloni in the region, but certainly not under only one power (even Gothic refugees didn't beneficied from such).

Eventually, Arabs would romanize themselves deeply (and of course would recieve an important germanic and sarmatic influence) and woulnd't be in large numbers enough (as when populations were resettled, it was never, at the contrary, the whole population) to lead a confederation of their own.

I could see them sharing a similar fate than Alans in Western Europe, being eventually absorbated by other powers without loosing their political identity, not before some centuries.
 
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