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Yesterday I posted a thread about an eventual scenario with a stronger ERE which had avoided the Gothic Wars and thus keep a good shape for dominating Persians and Arabs at later stage.

Today's scenario is just the opposite: what would happen if an ERE more weakened by a harsher and longer Gothic War eventually falls by 617, during the Persian-Roman War (in 617 the Sassanians had captured Chalcedon and they had a good chance for assaulting Constantinople). The Sassanians then subdue the Byzantines and reduce them to a bunch of client states and become the hyperpower of the East (no Arab expansion then).

But which would have been the consequences for the West here?

- Would any Germanic King be tempted to claim the vacant title of Emperor?
- Would the Sassanians venture into Central Europe or it would be too challenging? Would any Germanic power try to capture Constantinople when the Sassanian power in the Balkan area might decline?
- Would the fall of the powerful Eastern Churches boost the hegemony of the Papacy in the Christendom? Would it favor an earlier West-east Schism or rather the opposite?
- Would the Franks expand into the Balkan-Adriatic area? And the Lombards?
- Would a Slavic power rise in the Balkans earlier tan IOTL?

Please comment.
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