This. if he does a better job against the Parthians, he does Rome a huge favor.perhaps a slightly better POD would be him doing MUCH better against Parthia during the civil war that saw the rise of the Sassanids (i.e. sack Ctesiphon, plunder the Mesopotamian for loot and slaves, establish small vassals all over the place to act as buffer states, have the core Parthian territory divided between two rival factions for longer and have them pay tribute to Rome, gain control of the Red Sea trade route to India etc)
Then, he can go about keeping the legions busy by conquering Germania (which was now much more developed than at the time of Augustus and a much better candidate for a successful Romanization), while, at the same time, continue his efforts to revalue the currency and keep trade strong.
With luck and a good successor, we might see a "Crisis of the fourth century" at worst, and no major crisis and no proto-feudalism at best.
The plagues, environmental changes and population migrations to come would still be a very big challenge for the Roman state though...
In OTl Severus Alexander was assasinated for trying to buy off Germanic Tribes, which was seen as weakness by the legions. His death would lead to the Third Century crisis.
So what if Alexander does not try to buy off the Tribes and thus the soldiers have no reason to assasinate him?
I think the whole premise of the idea is he survives other assassination attempts as well. It's not that of a stretch to assume he could die of natural causes and have a long reign. Septimius Severus did IIRC.If the mortality rate among Roman Emperors from Commodus to the accession of Diocletian is anything to go by most likely someone else assassinates him a few years later for some other reason.
I think the whole premise of the idea is he survives other assassination attempts as well. It's not that of a stretch to assume he could die of natural causes and have a long reign. Septimius Severus did IIRC.
And that changing would require a more significant change than not being assassinated at the time he was OTL.
Even if he's successful in certain areas he wasn't OTL, or didn't live to be successful at, that is only a start.
A start to what exactly ?
A scenario where he gets to die of old age in his bed and/or the Third Century Crisis is delayed.
I mean, let's say he doesn't bribe the German tribes. Fine, what does he do? How does the army react to that?
Lead the Legions in glorious battle against the barbarian hordes of the east ?![]()
That was a serious question. Is this a serious answer?
Sorry if it came off as offensive.