What if Rome never fell? Animated Alternate History

#history #alternatehistory #animated
An animated alternate history for the roman empire where empire spans throughout history through the eyes of the Great Man Theory of history. It answers the question: what if Rome survived.

Total War Battles:

Songs:
Tear Like Rain, by JCar: JLAVLKIBY2DMMMMZ
Our Memories, by Aeroplane: ROAMZQDU9EV6BSKP
Heir To The Throne, by Third Age: WZZ9CFQXHD3FGCJ
Videntis

[stupidmonkey]

Just imagine by like 1600 the Romans set foot on the moon

[carlosgaston]

In my opinion, what Roma needed to do to solidify his reign was to create an institution that would take care of molding future emperors, indoctrinating them in all kinds of knowledge from administration to warfare, bringing the best candidates among the children of the high nobility. To make sure that the successions and the emperors to come were at the height of such an empire, the other institutions were very solid, that was the great fort of Rome

[mrmuffins]

The biggest part of this is the new meaning behind “all roads lead to Rome”

[cheriankalayil]

WE DEMAND YOU TO MAKE PART TWO!


It was an excellent video! Please do part 2 of this video

[MarcoDollenz]

I loved the alternate version, its really fascinating to continue into how everything would have been affected

[kingspore]

The fact that - state which through half of its history (Imperial times) didn't have a clear, solidified system of selecting rulers and their successors manageed to survive that long, beat many crisis and became greatest empire in humankind history - is absolutely insane and epic

[BHS]

And Here I am again after deciding not to think about Rome anymore.

[benjaminobienu]

This is incredible; I like this alternate history where most of these Emperors are more comment but savage as hell when they're on the battlefield to fight their enemies. Even took the Americas, while the Spanish had half of the North and South, and Britain used to have access to part of the territory. Well done and outstanding animation you did, my friend, for I can't wait to see more alternate history like this. I have some ideas if you're interested in hearing them, but anyway, great job, and always stay true to your dream and always fill your passion with your knowledge and art!

[iuegpti]

Hard to imagine Rome standing strong for centuries while stretched so thin. Even if the mixing of peoples works corruption and opportunism in time will tear border provinces off the empire, that'll 'cause a domino effect. Certain parts will get consumed by the bordering tribes and kingdoms while others will manage to adapt.

[KraNisOG]

"Rome just ran out of men to fight back."

That's exactly why I always say that "Rome was the crown of the world, it makes sense that everyone would want the crown, it wasin't one event, or people who conquered Rome. Rome was conquered when it ran out of Romans to defend her."
Even in the last battles of the eastern empire, it was clear that Rome could still fight, but they could never muster an army large enough to match their neighbors.

[efolnxu]

Looks perfect as a timeline, basically the world is much more cohesively united.

[Fatherofheroesandheroines]

Only one issue here. Atilla did NOT have men. It was more like 30000. The Romans exaggerated the numbers, this has been proven.

[der_kaiser_cole]

Rome surviving forever as a Catholic Empire is a wet dream for me

[Salvo]

I really love the idea of it, but it seems so unlikely that so much happened in only 200 years or so (the conquest of Parthia and Scandi, e.g.).
Very cool vid, I've rarely seen sth so well done like this before.

[alessandrogini]

I think that an underrated emperor was Alexander severus..if he had more grip on the army, i think that he could had vassalized sassanid empire

[therealspeedwagon]

I like the idea more that what if Rome had not fallen, or retained it’s old glory, but rather stagnated. What if Rome had discovered gunpowder, and were able to field massive weapons the likes of those the world had never seen? What if even those weren’t enough to prevent it’s partial destruction but keep it as a regional stagnated power in the Italian Peninsula, with the Alps to the north and west, and a small easily defendable plain to the east? With that Rome would be a tough nut to get through. They would then become a fallen empire, one that while still alive, is in a stagnant state. Perhaps one day however it could retake it’s former glory and unite the world under it’s banner and then look to the stars, conquering the galaxy just as it had done to Earth.

[LuCa_]

What a great video man I was surprised really how good the quality was keep doing what you’re doing.

[Woah]

This really would make Rome the uncontested capital of the world

[avatar]

Honestly, I loved the first half of the video (everything up to conquering the Persians), I felt it was very well fleshed out and covered in sufficient detail to understand the causes and effects of what was being proposed. It felt much more real as a result, as history is made up of those millions of tiny details. The primary issue of succession wasn't really discussed though, and without that being resolved (ideally by Augustus laying down some kind of system being the First Emperor as precedent) the Roman Empire would have torn itself apart over and over again like in OTL due to perpetual political infighting, rendering it too weak to do any of the cool stuff later on that is discussed. In order for this video to have occurred, that issue HAS to be resolved, just..in the background I guess.

Everything from conquering the Persians on felt, honestly, like bad alt history fanfiction. It takes the idea that Rome achieves some kind of "critical mass" and runs with it, swallowing up Persia in what is a xerox copy of Alexander's campaign with the serial numbers filed off, replaced with "Rome". History wouldn't repeat in the same way with over 1000 years of technological, social, and economic differences. The Persia that Rome fought was a much tougher and more advanced cookie than what Alexander faced, with the lessons of the fractured Hellenistic kingdoms fused with native Persian capabilities. They would not fall just because a couple of their rulers fell in battle, it would be a very rough campaign.

In addition, a bigger issue is that Rome grew too big to govern and administer/control without more advanced technologies that they did not possess, or think to use in specific ways. While their roads were the envy of the world, and they had the "Pax Romana" turning the Mediterranean Sea into one giant safe pond for Roman rule, and they did have a Pony Express-esque courier/messaging system to send messages faster than marching infantry (even with 2000 years of less developed/shorter/slower horse breeds, messengers could cover a distance of about 200 miles a day on main roads by changing horses every 10 miles or so, and took only about 6 days to reach Britain from Rome (a record that was not improved upon until the invention of modern automobiles in the OTL 20th century)...

...they did not have semaphore towers (more fantasy-like, but possible), they did not have railways (even wooden ones). Without those concepts (and with a cultural disdain of cavalry to boot), Rome couldn't have extended to such a bloated state, like a Mongol Empire but from the west. The Mongols had 1000 years edge on the Romans technologically, plus internal Mongol cultural influences that translated into superlative highly mobile military forces that could ride across the largest continent on Earth and allow them to outmaneuver any medieval army thrown at them (a level of army mobility not re-achieved until WW2 in many cases). Rome did not have those critical things needed to conquer and maintain in the long run (centuries) an intercontinental empire on the scale of what is shown on those maps of yours (heck, the only comparable entity in our world is the Mongol Empire, and even they fell apart within a few generations as their rulers lost their edge from their original culture, diluted by other cultures they conquered, and fractured into easier to administer chunks). So even IF Rome conquered Persia successfully and Romanized it somehow, the video would end at the "administrative zones" bit, Rome permanently fractured into smaller pieces that could be ruled separately (which again IRL that is what happened with the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian).

The same problems persisted with the "Islam" and "Viking" parts of the timeline. Islam only occurred the way it did (I'm reading right now "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" by Peter Frankopan, it covers the origin of Islam and a lot of other stuff in detail) due to a confluence of political conflicts between the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, clashes between competing versions of Byzantine and Persian Christianity (plus lots of native Arabic religious turmoil too). There was a severe food famine/economic crash going on, all of which spurred on the unique events that led to Mohammed's revelations in the cave by Gabriel that led to Islam being founded, the Hegira, etc. Long and short of it, if Rome just swallowed up the entire "world" around Arabia and was the sole superpower, then none of that would have happened. If a competing religion to Christianity had ever emerged, it would have been so different as to not warrant calling it Islam at all.

The Viking thing just...made me wince. Like, in this timeline the Romans conquered most or all of Scandinavia, which was where the Vikings largely came from. I doubt there would be enough "free Vikings" to have what is described happen, as they would be so thoroughly Romanized by over 1000 years of regional access they wouldn't be who we call Vikings. Those would be ROMANS crossing the seas with Viking capabilities, but they wouldn't be Vikings, swallowed up by Roman cultural and religious hegemony.

Everything about the New World, industrialization, Mongol Wars, etc, is just...a fantasy, really.

So...sorry for ripping into the video so much. I've always loved reading about the Roman Empire and what-ifs, so this was something I could really sink my teeth into. But I really did love the first half!

[atticusp]

Also the inflation under Nero was largely dealt with by both Vespasion (who massively increased taxes) and Domitian who increased the silver standard from like 86% silver to 98%, granted it went back down to 92% but other it can't be blamed on Nero unless you want to say he created the precedent for it, otherwise no-one forced other Emperor's to do that.