WI: Roman Empire collapses during the Crisis of the Third Century?

I've come up with more ideas and will thus continue from where I left off:

West:

* Tetricus I prepares to retake Africa by fortifying Aquileia against a possible Visigothic or Alemanni attack and granting the Franks Colonia Agrippina and foederati status. He also sends support to Roman sympathisers in Dalmatia and makes contact with Epirus for a potential future campaign against the Ostrogoths.

* Accompanied by his son, also named Tetricus, Tetricus I easily retakes Sardinia and Sicily (though Syracuse continues to hold out) and lands in Northern Africa. Before he can attack Carthage his army is ambushed by an army from Roman Mauretania. Though the Gallic army emerges victorious it has been badly mauled and Tetricus dies in a hail of javelins.

* Tetricus II takes over the remnants of the army and sets out towards Mauretania to avenge his father's death. Despite their best efforts Mauretania is annexed by the Gallic Empire and their leaders brutally put to death as an example to any other potential rebels. This would later become a staple of Tetricus II's rule.

* Syracuse finally falls when the gates are opened by Roman sympathisers within the city. The soldiers in Sicily are finally able to sail to Africa and join up with Tetricus, giving him enough soldiers to besiege Carthage.

* Carthage soon falls and the Vandals are forced to surrender. Everyone expects Tetricus to butcher them, but Tetricus instead takes a leaf out of his father's book and settles them in Tripolitana as a potential buffer stage/staging point against Egypt.

* Tetricus returns to Italy and begins a campaign against the Alemanni and Visigoths. Rhaetia and Noricum are retaken in short order.

* The Visigoths manage to put down the revolts in Dalmatia but have been distracted long enough for Tetricus to retake Pannonia and sweep down into Dalmatia. A peace treaty is signed - the Romans will return all Visigothic prisoners in exchange for the Visigoths giving up all claims on Dalmatia and Pannonia.

* Tetricus enters Rome a hero, crediting his victories to Mithras and Sol Invictus. He is held in great esteem by the ordinary people while the nobles and senators are wary over his behaviour in Mauretania.

* Tetricus is being hailed (perhaps prematurely) as the restorer of the Roman world, but to him it is not enough. The Alemanni have always been a thorn in the Gallic Emperors' sides and it is time they learned their place in the Roman world.

* Tetricus plans to crush the Alemanni in a pincer movement with the Franks coming in from the north and his troops coming up through the Alps. However when called to Rome's aid the Franks refuse and begin raiding Roman territory themselves. Tetricus is enraged. He sends one army to retake Colonia Agrippina while he marches towards Alemanni territory.

* The Alemanni refuse to engage the Romans in pitched battle, drawing them deeper into their own territory. To make matters worse winter sets in. Tetricus urges his army to go on but he catches pneumonia and is unable to lead his men personally. In the end, Tetricus meets the same fate as his father - killed in an ambush deep in enemy territory. His head is sent back to Rome along with the few survivors of his army.

* The other general in Gaul is successful against the Franks but when he hears of Tetricus's death he makes a hasty peace with the Franks and marches his army back to Italy to stake his claim for the Imperial throne.

East:

* The Palmyrene Empire invades Nicomedia, their army boosted by Armenian auxiliaries from the Sassanids. Cilicia, Pamphylia and Cyprus are conquered but the Armenians, under one Tiridates, revolt and form the Kingdom of Armenia Minor out of Pamphylia and Cilicia. The Persian Shah Bahram III sees this as an opportunity for expansion. His first target - Palmyra.

* Narses brings the full force of the Persian army upon the Palmyrene Empire. Many of the survivors flee to Cyprus. Bahram III sets up Judea and the Ghassanids as buffer states against Egypt before turning towards Nicomedia.

* The Nicomedian Empire puts up a valiant fight but loses ground against the Persians until finally Nicomedia itself is sacked. Bahram is about to finish off the last vestiges of Roman rule in the East when he hears about a rising power in India threatening his eastern satrapies. Instead he establishes Armenia Minor and Cyprus as vassals and organises the remaining Roman territories into four seperate kingdoms - Bithynia, Pergamum, Lycia and Caria. (Similar to how Macedon was divided up after it was defeated by Rome.)

* These four statelets don't last long as the Ostrogoths see an opportunity to expansion. Bithynia, Pergamum and Lycia fall quickly to the Ostrogoths while Egypt, having taken Crete earlier, takes Caria and Rhodes for itself.

Balkans/Steppes:

* The Ostrogoths invade and annex Epirus when they catch word of their alliance with Tetricus I. When Tetricus II turns his attention westwards they take advantage of their neighbours recent defeats to reestablish the Danube border before turning eastwards.

* The Visigoths begin to settle in around the Carpathian Basin and enter a period of consolidation. How could they have fallen from grace so quickly? Have they displeased the gods? Have the gods abandoned them? Across the seas are rumors of peoples who worship the teachings of 'Mani' and 'Zoroaster' and have gained great victories. Hmm, maybe...

* With the collapse of Nicomedian authority in the Black Sea, the Crimea is conquered by the Heruli who create a new kingdom.

As always, I'm all ears for criticism.
 

Alkahest

Banned
Hey again, everyone!

I'm just popping in to say that I've begun doing research for this TL again, and the more I study this period, the more I'm fascinated by the character of the unfairly reviled Gallienus. I used to think that he was one of those "decadent" herpaderp ineffectual loser emperors that ancients historians love to hate, but his reforms seem to have been crucial to the survival of the empire. I'm thinking of perhaps revisiting the idea of having a POD during his reign, rather than during that of Aurelian.

Has anyone here read (or does anyone know of) any good monographs, articles or other pieces of literature about Gallienus? I'm thankful for any tips.
 
Hey again, everyone!

I'm just popping in to say that I've begun doing research for this TL again, and the more I study this period, the more I'm fascinated by the character of the unfairly reviled Gallienus. I used to think that he was one of those "decadent" herpaderp ineffectual loser emperors that ancients historians love to hate, but his reforms seem to have been crucial to the survival of the empire. I'm thinking of perhaps revisiting the idea of having a POD during his reign, rather than during that of Aurelian.

Has anyone here read (or does anyone know of) any good monographs, articles or other pieces of literature about Gallienus? I'm thankful for any tips.

Well I thought Mike Duncan did a good job explaining Gallienus in the History Of Rome Podcast (I can find the exact episodes if you want). Yeah, Gallienus really gets a lot of bad rap, mainly because he did a lot to bypass the Senate (much of the bypassing of the Senate Aurelian and Diocletian would more or less institutionalize was done by Gallienus), and thus since they were pissed off at him, and Senators wrote the Roman history books, you can imagine why they would want to paint him as a terrible ruler. Kinda like how Domitian was painted as a terrible tyrant, when in reality, he was actually not that bad of an emperor.
 
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