"And there will be no Fourth!": Syracuse as the Third Rome

From A Short History of the Syracusian Empire

The survival of the Roman Empire is a near miraculous thing, no matter how anyone looks at it. The past two thousand years had seen it shed most of its territory at least once and few would dispute that it had been pushed to the brink multiple times by sequences of disasters. Historians in fact consider the modern state to be the third (or fourth, depending on who is asked) incarnation, with few disputing the bloody destruction of the First and Second Empire (often classified as Latin and Byzantine Empires colloquially).

But Third Rome lives, and protects a vast multicultural society under its purple cloak. Today, Jew, Arab, Armenian, Latin and Greek can sail unmolested from the Pillars to the Levant, just like in the time of Augustus. It is undoubtedly true that this diverse society had only resulted on account of the highly federal structure of the Empire which has let effectively independent nations co-exist under its banner, leaving only issues like Defense and Foreign Affairs to the Imperial Government (which wisely keeps its nose out of provincial affairs).

The Empire is not perfect-but the Roman dream lives on. The time for bloodshed is over and old wounds have slowly started to heal. In this light, it is easy to ignore how close the Empire had flirted with destruction and how easily the fates could have let it sink.....

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Empire of the Romans.

The modern Provinces are:
1. Africa
2. Aragon
3. Asia
4. Epiros
5. Kilikia
6. Iudea
7. Krete et Kyrenaica
8. Kyprios
9. Makedonia
10. Phoenicia
11. Pontos
12. Sardinia et Korsica
13. Sikilia et Italia

In addition, the following City states are part of the Empire:
1. Konstantinopolis
2. Alexandria
3. Roma
 
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And now the logistics:

1. I am not abandoning my other TL, merely writing something less dystopic to get my creative juices flowing.
2. My objective is to finish this in a month with a series of updates that span decades, till modernity.
3. The map is an atrocity, but an intended one.
4. Official languages are: Greek and Latin. Provinces may their own local favorite.
5. Majority religion is: Nicene-Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, leaning closer to modern Catholicism than Orthodoxy though. Provinces again have their own favorites.
6. Imperial Government's power comparable to US Federal Govt's in comparison to states. Nothing to sneer at, but not supremely powerful.
 
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