WI Majorian survives.


Majorian is known as the last real emperor of the western roman empire, and also the final one who really had success on trying to restore the empire, to the point that the historian Edward Gibbon was quoted saying:
"presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honour of the human species"

Majorian, however, was a victim of the corruption of the empire, he began reforms to centralize and effective the empire, and this made the corrupt senatorial elite to kill him. The following emperors were puppets and allowed the empire to crumble.

Now, here is the PoD: Majorian discover the plot to sabotate his war against the vandals, he kills the conspirators and embark on a offensive to retake north africa, with success he grab corsega, sardegna, sicily, tunisia and reduces the vandals to foederatti. After returning to Ravenna, and by having the status of a hero at this point with a massive support of the people he crushes the senatorial opposition and proceed with his reforms. What happens next? Is that possible?
 
If Majorian is successful, then TTL's future mainstream historiography will support the notion that the Huns helped the Roman Empire by weakening the Germanic barbarians from their flanks, in contrast with OTL's "push" theory.
Plus, if there's no extinction of the WRE, then the ERE will not find interest in something like OTL's Gothic War. This could mean more focus on the border with Persia.
 
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Majorian himself could be as successful as you would wish (he certainly was in my timeline In Britannia Salutem around post 194) however how long lasting would his reforms be? If there is no clear cut powerful successor who carries them on, then the competitors would cheerfully roll back reforms to get support for the purple. Depending on when Majorian dies the WRE might actually collapse sooner!
 
I think the prospects of this Western Empire would depend entirely on who Majorian's successor would be. If there's anything the history of the Eastern Empire tells us, it's that even the most competent Emperor can have all their progress completely rolled back by a bad heir. When Majorian was killed, all his progress was quickly undone, the same could easily happen (just a few decades later) depending on how he dies, and who succeeds him. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say a more successuful Majorian would "save" the Western Empire from it's fall, but it would certainly delay it by atleast a few decades.

Plus, if there's no extinction of the WRE, then the ERE will not find interest in something like OTL's Gothic War. This could mean more focus on the border with Persia.

Theoretically things could still go bad for the East if they decide to claim the Western Empire for themselves during peace time. This happened numerous times before 395 and is one of the primary factors for the Western Empire's army being unable to competently respond to the Germanic threat. If some Eastern Emperor fears Majorian is becoming too powerful, or the succession is a mess then I could see a psuedo-equivalent of the Gothic War here, provided this happens when the East isn't busy with it's own problems.
 
I think the prospects of this Western Empire would depend entirely on who Majorian's successor would be. If there's anything the history of the Eastern Empire tells us, it's that even the most competent Emperor can have all their progress completely rolled back by a bad heir. When Majorian was killed, all his progress was quickly undone, the same could easily happen (just a few decades later) depending on how he dies, and who succeeds him. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say a more successuful Majorian would "save" the Western Empire from it's fall, but it would certainly delay it by atleast a few decades.



Theoretically things could still go bad for the East if they decide to claim the Western Empire for themselves during peace time. This happened numerous times before 395 and is one of the primary factors for the Western Empire's army being unable to competently respond to the Germanic threat. If some Eastern Emperor fears Majorian is becoming too powerful, or the succession is a mess then I could see a psuedo-equivalent of the Gothic War here, provided this happens when the East isn't busy with it's own problems.


Very interesting idea would make for a good timeline.

Can we make a scenario with this PoD? We three could work together on a chat to plan it, there is NO scenario of a so late roman revival or survival.
 
Honestly, if the Senate are seen as a major problem, gutting them and re-establishing a new structure of power might well happen, pulling a sort of Diocletian and reorganise the West, and it's authority structures. Handling the succession is a big problem. Perhaps it would be wise to have a new 'generation' of Senators, after confiscating loads of territory Octavian-style and granting loads of Foedi citizenship to create new Senators, a more militant Senate, with new rules to prevent the accumulation of too much land (perhaps having a limit on the amount of wealth a Senators family could have.)
 
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