WI Decius wins Battle of Abrittus?

In OTL in June 251 Emperor Decius faced the Goths under King Cniva in the battle of Abrittus... Decius seemed to win the battle but the failure of General Trebonianus Gallus to attack aggresively and his subsequent retreat lead to the deaths of Emperor Decius and his son Caesar Herennius Etruscus (Decius being the first Emperor to be killed in battle with Barbarians...) and to the worst Roman defeat after the disaster in Teutoburg...
WI Trebonianus Gallus attack was strong enough to break the Gothic lines? Decius would have lived and Goths would have been repealed and fled outside the borders of the Roman Empire... And for sure the reign of Trebonianus Gallus is butterflied away... (unless he wants to challenge Decius later based on the fact that he saved the day in Abrittus...)
 
In OTL in June 251 Emperor Decius faced the Goths under King Cniva in the battle of Abrittus... Decius seemed to win the battle but the failure of General Trebonianus Gallus to attack aggresively and his subsequent retreat lead to the deaths of Emperor Decius and his son Caesar Herennius Etruscus (Decius being the first Emperor to be killed in battle with Barbarians...) and to the worst Roman defeat after the disaster in Teutoburg...
WI Trebonianus Gallus attack was strong enough to break the Gothic lines? Decius would have lived and Goths would have been repealed and fled outside the borders of the Roman Empire... And for sure the reign of Trebonianus Gallus is butterflied away... (unless he wants to challenge Decius later based on the fact that he saved the day in Abrittus...)

The problem might be that as you say Gallus became emperor after Decius's death. i.e. its in his interests for the lack of support.

However, if you get around that then it could be very interesting. The period after 250 was a very rough time for Rome and more stability and stronger government could have avoided a lot of that. This might also have been important in the religious history of the empire. Under Decius you saw the 1st serious persecution of Christianity. A longer reign might have saw this have more dramatic effect in reducing its growth, as would have been the lack or reduction in the period of disorder and decline. Furthermore a victory in the battle against the Goths here might result in the securing of the Dacian province across the Danube and possibly giving it more secure borders. This could have had a dramatic effect on future events.

On the other hand I believe Decius was already fairly elderly and may not have been about much longer. How the succession would have gone after his death and what sort of emperor his son would have made if he gained the purple is very difficult to say.

Steve
 
Well Herennius Etruscus was the heir apparent unless some other General challenged him... it depends on when Decius dies and if Herennius has enough army support...
 
A possible candidate to challenge Herennius (assuming Decius dies of natural causes and is not assassinated or deposed by some greedy General) would be Trebonianus Gallus itself... based on his belief that he actually saved the day in Abrittus (along with the Emperor of course...) and repealed the Gothic army... (same scenario actually with Aemilianus and Gallus)... Unless Hostilian in Rome manages to secure the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards... This complicates things up...
 
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