WI No donation of Pepin the Short

Not necessarily the POD of the title, but develop a TL where the Roman pope remains politically connected to the Byzantine Emperor.

Bonus if it leads to the Hellenization of the Italian upper classes (at least in an Ancient Roman way) and the general adoption of Greek as the liturgical language of Christianity.
 

B-29_Bomber

Banned
If you get rid of the Iconoclast movement, you might have something.


Even better, butterfly away the Islamic Invasions.
 
Getting rid of Iconoclasm is the most obvious answer, though even without a theological breach the weakness of Constantinople's grip on Italy is going to continually endanger the link between pope and emperor.

A longer-term but much more far-reaching solution would be to change the history of the Gothic War and/or Lombard invasion of Italy such that Italy remains a whole and reasonably coherent imperial province instead of a patchwork of coastal duchies constantly in crisis.
 
A longer-term but much more far-reaching solution would be to change the history of the Gothic War and/or Lombard invasion of Italy such that Italy remains a whole and reasonably coherent imperial province instead of a patchwork of coastal duchies constantly in crisis.

Exactly, what I'm looking for is a way to weaken and integrate the Lombards into the Byzantine Empire. A Frankish Antipope would be perfect to avoid any further western influence in Italy as well.
 
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