WI: Constantine's capital is Palermo?

Zioneer

Banned
Okay so hear me out: What if, instead of moving to far-off Byzantium, Constantine decides to hold court in Sicily, making the already-rich Palermo his capital?

While he wouldn't have the sheer defensibility of OTL Constantinople, Palermo was a large grain producer if I remember correctly, and was fairly to close to Egypt, the other grain producer.

Plus, Sicily is close to Rome, so Constantine could claim that he had not abandoned it.

So what would cause Constantine to look torwards Palermo instead of Byzantium? A plague, a mass rebellion, etc?
 
It doesn't make too much sense to me: you're going to get Emperors settled somewhere around the Marmara at some point anyway: if not at Byzantium, then at Nicaea or Nicomedia. The region is ideally placed between the Danube and Persia to ensure that orders from the centre can be relayed quickly enough to deal with any potential trouble.

Similarly, there's a reason why the fourth century capitals were Trier and Milan- these are areas that can easily control the Rhine, and mean an Emperor is on hand. Palermo, by contrast, is isolated from all of Rome's major "danger zones".
 

Zioneer

Banned
It doesn't make too much sense to me: you're going to get Emperors settled somewhere around the Marmara at some point anyway: if not at Byzantium, then at Nicaea or Nicomedia. The region is ideally placed between the Danube and Persia to ensure that orders from the centre can be relayed quickly enough to deal with any potential trouble.

Similarly, there's a reason why the fourth century capitals were Trier and Milan- these are areas that can easily control the Rhine, and mean an Emperor is on hand. Palermo, by contrast, is isolated from all of Rome's major "danger zones".

So Constantine's choice was based more on being closer to "danger" zones than the richness or defensibility of the chosen capital?

And the only way to ensure Palemero as a capital would be a safe Western and Eastern frontier? Of course, that would mean that Rome itself would be safe, so no point for a different capital. Hmm... Could a Roman successor state be based in Sicily?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
So Constantine's choice was based more on being closer to "danger" zones than the richness or defensibility of the chosen capital?

And the only way to ensure Palemero as a capital would be a safe Western and Eastern frontier? Of course, that would mean that Rome itself would be safe, so no point for a different capital. Hmm... Could a Roman successor state be based in Sicily?

Have the exarchate of Africa hold together and recover Sicily and Sardinia as "carthaginian islands"?
 
I'd imagine that Sicily is pretty central (in terms of travel and communication time) to the rest of the empire, so that could be a motivation, especially if Africa and Britain are more critical.

Perhaps so that he can personally visit the troops as often as possible? However, it doesn't really work for the German frontier.
 

Vitruvius

Donor
Another issue with Palermo is that Syracuse was the more important city in Sicily until the Arab conquest established Palermo as the capitol. So Syracuse is more likely to be selected as an Imperial capitol, supposing its moved to Sicily. Constans II actually resided there for a while in the 660's and allegedly wanted to relocate the capitol there from Constantinople (whose inhabitants were rather hostile to his rule).
 
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