WI Rome goes south?

Here is a map I posted in the map thread a few weeks back:

romafinal.png


My intention was a bit of a realistic long lasting Rome. None of the 'if it conquers Germania it conquers the world' stuff.
The exact borders of my map aren't important overall but it gives an impression of my thinking here....what if Rome went south?
IOTL there was a half hearted attempt on Arabia, an embarassing defeat in the desert, a smash and grab on Aden followed by a trip home. Nothing of too much historical note.
What if the Romans had expanded south and decided to stay?- Turning the Red Sea into another Mediterranian style Roman Lake.
How would more solid contacts with India, and by extension China, alter the world?
 
The Roman Empire was already too big for one person to manage. There were simply too many demands made on the emperor for patronage from all corners of the empire. That's why it eventually split in two. You have now added even more territory very far from Rome. The Red Sea area in particular is too far from the other major parts of the empire. You might see a situation where the empire is divided in three with a Western third, an Eastern third (which has Mesopotamia), and then an Southern third with an emperor in Egypt also ruling the Red Sea area.

The new conquests in the Red Sea are much poorer compared to the rest of the Empire although you now have better control of the spice trade. At the same time, Roman traders already used the Red Sea and traded as far as India. So you have added a lot of administrative expense to directly control that area with not much of a tax base to support it in return for slightly better control of an existing trade route.

Much of the interior of your Arabia Lathrippus, Nubia Inferior, Nubia Superior, and Axumensis is going to be hard to control. Lots of desert nomadic raiders there, and the Romans will only have easy access by the Red Sea. The Nile is not navgiable by ship that far south because of cataracts. Ethiopia has wonderfully defensive mountains. It is going to be hard to convince local elites down there that there are enough benefits to distant imperial rule to make up for the additional taxes.

I don't see such conquests lasting very long, although a sufficient period of control would advance those areas culturally and tie them into the greater Roman world. Being exposed to Roman law, state institutions, and engineering would likely mean a much stronger Ethiopian state (which might control Arabia Felix and much of Nubia) after it breaks free during one of the inevitable crises that hits the empire in the 3rd to 5th centuries. Increased trade and ongoing cultural transmission would make Ethiopia a much more developed country than the isolated and often besieged state it would become after the Arab conquests.
 
What if the Romans had expanded south and decided to stay?- Turning the Red Sea into another Mediterranian style Roman Lake.
How would more solid contacts with India, and by extension China, alter the world?

Earlier plagues. Not just the Plague of Justinian, but the hypothesized earlier ones that sapped the Empire's manpower.

What moving this up would do I don't know.
 
Earlier plagues. Not just the Plague of Justinian, but the hypothesized earlier ones that sapped the Empire's manpower.

I don't know about that; the plagues themselves don't show up in India until around the time they hit Rome OTL, which suggests they weren't jsut waiting to spring on Rome.
 
The new conquests in the Red Sea are much poorer compared to the rest of the Empire although you now have better control of the spice trade. At the same time, Roman traders already used the Red Sea and traded as far as India. So you have added a lot of administrative expense to directly control that area with not much of a tax base to support it in return for slightly better control of an existing trade route.
Axum was regarded as one of the major powers of its time. The area was a lot more richer and fertile than it is today. Would they be as rich as Egypt? No. Would they be the poorest parts of the empire? Not at all.

That still doesn't solves the problem of defense of limes against Germanic barbarrians.
Why would it?
They've got nothing much to do with Rome expanding south.
 
I don't know about that; the plagues themselves don't show up in India until around the time they hit Rome OTL, which suggests they weren't just waiting to spring on Rome.
There is speculation that the Justian Plague came out of Ethiopia, due to [Rat] Movements caused by "The Year The Sun Went Out"
If there had been More/Earlier Contact with these Desert regions then the Retro/Hanta virus would not of had such a Virgin Territory Effect on the 530's Romans.

I See Aden controlled by the Romans. ?What effect would Roman Engineering have on the Maintenance of the Great Magarb Dam?
 

The Sandman

Banned
An earlier discovery of coffee, possibly?

If so, I can see the Romans trying to trade coffee in India to reduce the amount of money they had to spend there.

And any chance of some African crops being spread out of Ethiopia?
 
Well, apparently something like this happened in OTL.

One Aelius Gallus, for instance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelius_Gallus

"When Aelius Gallus set out with his army, he trusted to the guidance of a Nabataean called Syllaeus, who deceived and misled him. A long account of this interesting expedition through the desert is given by Strabo—who derived most of his information about Arabia from his friend Aelius Gallus. The burning heat of the sun, the bad water, and the want of every thing necessary to support life, produced a disease among the soldiers which was altogether unknown to the Romans, and destroyed the greater part of the army; so that the Arabs were not only not subdued, but succeeded in driving the Romans even from those parts of the country which they had possessed before. Aelius Gallus spent six months on his march into the country, on account of his treacherous guide, while he effected his retreat in sixty days, obliged to return to Alexandria, having lost the greater part of his force."

Thus, the Romans tried but were deterred by the long supply lines and inhospitability of the local environment.
 
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