One of Justinian's generals Artabanes was refused marriage to Justinian's niece Praejecta. This disseffected general plotted to assassinate Justinian, and elevate Justinian's cousin Germanus on the throne instead. The conspirators approached Germanus's son Justin first, and revealed to him the plot. Immediately, he informed his father, and he in turn informed the Emperor. The plotters were promptly imprisoned. But What if Germanus co-operated with the conspirators and became Emperor ?
Germanus overthrows Justinian
- Thread starter Ohfshkssgb
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A better future for the ERE after Justinian as his OTL successor Justin II was very incompetent. Maybe the ERE manages to conquer Italy?
I wonder if Germanus and his son would lead campaigns himself, rather than stay in Constantinople like Justinian. Maybe the Gothic war ends slightly sooner.
Assuming he dies on schedule, Germanus reigns a short but successful 2 years until his son Justin (different Justin) takes over. Like EasternRomanEmpire pointed out, TTL’s emperor Justin might be more competent than OTL emperor Justin, but I still think the empire’s financial problems would catch up with it eventually. There’d still be a rough second half of the 6th century, it just might not get as bad as OTL, depending on how competent TTL’s emperors are
Assuming he dies on schedule, Germanus reigns a short but successful 2 years until his son Justin (different Justin) takes over. Like EasternRomanEmpire pointed out, TTL’s emperor Justin might be more competent than OTL emperor Justin, but I still think the empire’s financial problems would catch up with it eventually. There’d still be a rough second half of the 6th century, it just might not get as bad as OTL, depending on how competent TTL’s emperors are
I wanted to say maintain control over Italy longer than OTL. In a more permanent way than the period between the Ostrogoths and Lombards.
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it could be, although I believe that the main effect of this would be the wars with the Sassanids ( who could end earlier or manage to obtain a short period of truce, as was proposed to Tiberius in 577 ) in addition to the terrible management of finances by part of Justin and Tiberius II ( who were forced to dry up even the security fund created by Athanasius ) without forgetting the situation in Italy with the Lombards who in just 3 years easily occupied the main defensive strongholds in the Po Valley, and the Romans could not gather of significant military expeditions for a considerable period of time ( not to mention that those carried out in Otl almost always ended badly for the Romans ) and that the policies of using personnel from the East in the local administration further alienated the relationship between the " liberated " Latin populations and Constantinople ( since they saw their cities devastated, they had to bear an immense fiscal burden, lack of serious public renovation works, a poorly organized defense of their territory, conflicts between the imperial court and the Papacy, a linguistic gap and cultural that begins to solidify, and finally, in the long term, seeing oneself treated as second-class citizens or worse as barbarians ) in short, Maurice's reforms arrived almost too late and thus made them ineffective ( furthermore they were seen as a sop by the Italian population ) but this could change with a series of different emperors compared to Otl, making the socio-political development of the peninsula very different, furthermore it cannot be ruled out that more competent emperors would try to play with the idea soon discarded by Maurice in Otl, to create a similar exarchate also in Septimania or Provence ( considering that at least until around 640 the Romans controlled Liguria and especially Genoa, it would be quite feasible arrange a shipment from there ) , dividing the territories in the hands of the Visigoths or their own brothers with the Merovingian kings
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Not really, inevitably a succession of weak emperors would arrive and waste the gains that are made but it would butterfly many events of OTL like the Arab invasion.
It is definitely worth nothing that Germanus took a member of the Gothic royal family as his second wife IOTL and probably would ITTL, which had the effect of incentivizing defections from the Gothic side and even getting the ERE close to a reconciliation with the Goths. That alone would spare further devastation in Italy and make the ERE more prepared for the Lombard invasions.
His son and successor Justin lives longer than IOTL and is the guy in charge when the Lombards first arrive onto the scene because he isn’t exiled by an emperor to Alexandria and then murdered, so the Lombards are either repelled or their gains are reduced to northern Italy, maybe creating a split between a Greco-Roman center and south and Germano-Roman north.
His son and successor Justin lives longer than IOTL and is the guy in charge when the Lombards first arrive onto the scene because he isn’t exiled by an emperor to Alexandria and then murdered, so the Lombards are either repelled or their gains are reduced to northern Italy, maybe creating a split between a Greco-Roman center and south and Germano-Roman north.
Justin did a good job at that and helped with the economic recovery it just that war with the Persia was among his worst decisions
Remember, he also encouraged the Avars to attack the Gepids, which led to them replacing the latter as the major threat to the Balkans (it also pushed the Lombards in invade Italy).
Maybe the Avar takeover of the Pannonian Plain was inevitable or maybe it wasn't, but Justin II was absolutely on the hook for the precise timing of their arrival OTL.
it seems like these last few issues have more deep rooted socio-political causes. I think this would be an issue no matter who’s in charge, though theoretically an emperor could take proactive measures. There’s also the fact that the empire is still somewhat overextended and as we saw especially in the reign of Justin and Tiberius it’s very difficult for the Byzantine Empire to focus on multiple issues at once. Basically, there’s a reason Italy was neglected OTL and I think it’s likely it would always be considered a low priority compared to more immediate threats like Persia. So basically I don’t think you could avoid having some sort of conflict with the Italians. When that happens, what form it takes, and what the outcome is is entirely up in the air. It’d be interesting to have a semi-autonomous Italy divided up into exarchates
I certainly agree with your vision, but the real problem of the peninsula was that the exarch had too little power outside the pentapolis ( in the Roman duchy, he was already rapidly losing influence in favor of the Pope, just look at Gregory I who deals personally with the Lombards, without being accountable to the exarch or to Constantinople ) furthermore he was usually an official from Greece/Syria, so he had no serious ties with the local aristocracy ( who again preferred to follow Rome ) except those who were part of the "court " Ravenna, finally the bulk of the army was lost in the battle of Scultenna in 643, where important figures in the military field also died, difficult to replace, to conclude I believe that the idea conceived by Maurice, of making the western territories as a separate dominion for his younger son ( who would have been a Caesar in relation to the Augustus in Constantinople ) was the best solution, also because it would have given the signal that imperial authority would return, but that it would not depend on a distant and disinterested emperor in Constantinople, but on a local resident, who could really relate to the natives and intervene promptly to solve local problems , as well as avoiding the crises between the Papacy and the Patriarch which caused numerous sabotages by the latter towards imperial assistance towards the peninsula
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