Theodosius I only has one son

Theodosius the great only has one son that survives infancy. But this son is the the most comptent man the empire has ever seen. When his father dies on schedule he already has one healthy legitimate son by a wife he married the year before. With him being sole suriving son of his father he decides to hold off on having a partner in the west and try to rule everything by himself until he finds a suitable partner. His ultimate goal is to have the empire only need one emperor without giving up territory. How does a super competent emperor do in the wake of theodosius death? Can his goal be possible?
 
How "super competent" are we talking here? After all, even if he's not sharing power, he can only be so many places at once, and things aren't getting easier in the west...
 
Would be an interesting PoD: one of the two dies early enough of natural causes, say, before Theodosius dies himself.

Clean line of succession, maybe less, ahem, mental instability. We're left with a Nero or a Tiberius instead of that. Not great but maybe not as bad
 
Well, it was Theodosius The Little who slaughtered the army of the WRE. Sou unfortunately your TL comes a bit late. You avoid nothing with Theodosius having just 1 heir. Well, just if you not believe in this fairytale, that the roman empire was divided after Theodosius. This is an urban myth and fully wrong. The roman empire was never divided!

But if there is just one heir, regardless how competent he is, he rules from Constantinople.
That means Stilicho is Magister Militum in the West and in a fully different position and situation.
I guess it would be better for him and the WRE than in OTL. Every TL without Honorius The Loser, is better than OTL ;)
 
Well, it was Theodosius The Little who slaughtered the army of the WRE. Sou unfortunately your TL comes a bit late. You avoid nothing with Theodosius having just 1 heir. Well, just if you not believe in this fairytale, that the roman empire was divided after Theodosius. This is an urban myth and fully wrong. The roman empire was never divided!

But if there is just one heir, regardless how competent he is, he rules from Constantinople.
That means Stilicho is Magister Militum in the West and in a fully different position and situation.
I guess it would be better for him and the WRE than in OTL. Every TL without Honorius The Loser, is better than OTL ;)
At the very least,the eastern empire wouldn't have turned it's back on the west.If there's anything I'm certain of,it's that the eastern empire could have done much more for the WRE during the events of 400-420.For example,during that joint campaign against Alaric,the Eastern Empire pulled it's troops out just when Alaric was about to be crushed.
 
Well, it was Theodosius The Little who slaughtered the army of the WRE. Sou unfortunately your TL comes a bit late. You avoid nothing with Theodosius having just 1 heir. Well, just if you not believe in this fairytale, that the roman empire was divided after Theodosius. This is an urban myth and fully wrong. The roman empire was never divided!

But if there is just one heir, regardless how competent he is, he rules from Constantinople.
That means Stilicho is Magister Militum in the West and in a fully different position and situation.
I guess it would be better for him and the WRE than in OTL. Every TL without Honorius The Loser, is better than OTL ;)
I do avoid somthing. I avoid an empire headed by incompetents.
At the very least,the eastern empire wouldn't have turned it's back on the west.If there's anything I'm certain of,it's that the eastern empire could have done much more for the WRE during the events of 400-420.For example,during that joint campaign against Alaric,the Eastern Empire pulled it's troops out just when Alaric was about to be crushed.
What would happen if alt arcadius wants to really kill Alaric? Would it negatively or postively affect the empire?
 
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