raharris1973
Gone Fishin'
What if Constantine made Alexandria the eastern capital instead of Byzantium? Does an Egypt-focused eastern Empire encourage an earlier permanent loss of Thrace and Anatolia to barbarian or Persian invasions during the migration period? Does the Egyptian-focus of the ERE regime result in Egypt holding off Arab-Muslim conquest, with Palestine and Jerusalem featuring as a frequent contested borderland between the Egypt-based ERE and the southwest Asia based Caliphates over the centuries (eternal Crusades, for reasons both spiritual, and strategic)? Or does Egypt's proximity/vulnerability to Arabia likely cause the demise of the ERE in early centuries of Arab-Muslim conquest?
I rolled the dice, and Alexandrian Rome is going to do well. It will be comparatively strong as well rich. The leadership focus on the capital keeps it protected. This could well mean that Anatolia and the Danube and Anatolian frontiers are under-protected, and collapse as early as the west in the 5th century. However, Alexandrian-Rome will be able to continue to benefit from the Levant, Cyprus, the Aegean islands and Peloponessus, and parts of the Greek and Asia Minor coast most of the time thalassocratically using naval power. Asia Minor and Grece may hold out longer, and not collapse until Persian and Avar (or other steppe-denizen) invasions in the 7th century. By this point (roll of the dice again), Islam and Arabian unity are butterflied away. Alexandria may face some close calls from invasions by Persian armies or Persian-client Arabian armies, but in the end always keeps the border at Suez, or to the east of it. And when it has periods of strengh, it occupies buffer territories beyond, including Sinai, Palestine and the Holy Sites, and at the highest tides, Syria, Arabia Petraea, Hijaz, and Yemen. That is Alexandrian Rome's eastern frontier.
In the west, it reclaims the provinces of Africa from the Vandals and holds them basically in perpetuity. It controls the major Mediterranean islands with near perpeuity except for occassional invasions and separatist rebellions, and occasionally occupies Greece, the Ionian coast, and portions of the Italian and Iberian peninsulas.
Alexandro-Egyptian Rome, without a reliable connection to the silk road, keeps a vigorous monsoonal Read Sea-Indian Ocean trade going with India, that bypasses the usually antagonistic states ruling Persia that often extend as far as Syria and Anatolia/Asia Minor. Improvements in the commerce over time, and use of middle men, hook in the empire to further discoveries down the eastern coast of Africa, and trade for the spices of Southeast Asia and maritime trade with China.
I rolled the dice, and Alexandrian Rome is going to do well. It will be comparatively strong as well rich. The leadership focus on the capital keeps it protected. This could well mean that Anatolia and the Danube and Anatolian frontiers are under-protected, and collapse as early as the west in the 5th century. However, Alexandrian-Rome will be able to continue to benefit from the Levant, Cyprus, the Aegean islands and Peloponessus, and parts of the Greek and Asia Minor coast most of the time thalassocratically using naval power. Asia Minor and Grece may hold out longer, and not collapse until Persian and Avar (or other steppe-denizen) invasions in the 7th century. By this point (roll of the dice again), Islam and Arabian unity are butterflied away. Alexandria may face some close calls from invasions by Persian armies or Persian-client Arabian armies, but in the end always keeps the border at Suez, or to the east of it. And when it has periods of strengh, it occupies buffer territories beyond, including Sinai, Palestine and the Holy Sites, and at the highest tides, Syria, Arabia Petraea, Hijaz, and Yemen. That is Alexandrian Rome's eastern frontier.
In the west, it reclaims the provinces of Africa from the Vandals and holds them basically in perpetuity. It controls the major Mediterranean islands with near perpeuity except for occassional invasions and separatist rebellions, and occasionally occupies Greece, the Ionian coast, and portions of the Italian and Iberian peninsulas.
Alexandro-Egyptian Rome, without a reliable connection to the silk road, keeps a vigorous monsoonal Read Sea-Indian Ocean trade going with India, that bypasses the usually antagonistic states ruling Persia that often extend as far as Syria and Anatolia/Asia Minor. Improvements in the commerce over time, and use of middle men, hook in the empire to further discoveries down the eastern coast of Africa, and trade for the spices of Southeast Asia and maritime trade with China.
