What If The Eastern Roman Empire Never Fell ?

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[papazataklaattiranimam]

The news of Mehmed's death caused great rejoicing in Europe; church bells were rung, and celebrations held. The news was proclaimed in Venice thus: "La Grande Aquila è morta!" ('The Great Eagle is dead!')

[JosephPercente]

The last chance was if the 4th crusade hadn't destroyed the empire. It was a mere shell after that.

[Sp-di]

As a Greek who was taught in his school system that Rome never fell and that I am the continuation until now I believe that your script writers live in a parallel universe.

[alexclement]

The Justinian plague came just 5 years after the Famine of 536-537, and it was still a few years before crop yields in Europe returned to where they had been before the volcanic winter of 536. People were underfed, especially in the cities where plague killed a greater percentage of the population, partly because of the crowded environment, but also because of the physical weakness the famine had already created.

[emilkarpo]

Harry Turtledoves novel "Agent of Byzantium" is set in a time line in which Islam never arises.

[CMVBrielman]

I found a very fun video recently that discussed how the Byzantine Empire could have lasted past 1453, only by changing history after 1444. Suffice to say that it was actually more possible than we give it credit for.

Note: ‘survive’ means just that, survive.

Edit: youtube keeps eating my replies. Just look up romaboo’s 1453 video.

[Onezy]

Interesting video. But there are some things I would like to respectfully elaborate upon/ argue:

1) I think that even without the plague, Justinian's troops would have been stretched quite thin. Justinian didn't raise new forces from scratch for the expeditions to Africa and Italy. He detached troops from the already existing field armies, which led to the Balkans and the east having weaker defences. So the empire would have been stretched regardless, especially when having more fronts to defend now.

2) It's worth mentioning that Maurice telling the army to winter beyond the Danube was more the straw that broke the camels back rather than the sole cause of his downfall. He was deeply unpopular for spending a lot of money in a nepotistic manner on his own relatives at a time when he was enforcing unpopular budget cuts across the empire. The fact that the people of Constantinople didn't really come to his aid when Phokas mutinied against him tells you what his popular standing was like at the time.

3) I also think that the war with Persia would have broken out regardless of if Maurice died or not. Persian Shah Khosrow II was insecure and unpopular with his nobles, and so wanted to launch a war to increase his popularity. The Persian war actually only became as destructive as it did due to the revolt of Heraclius against Phokas. The revolt led to the remaining eastern armies being ground down and unable to prevent the Persian occupation of Syria and Egypt.

[erichtomanek]

From reading histories of the Byzantine Empire, I think a major factor in its downfall, was far too much internal dissention, especially at the times of an emperor's death.

[liberatumtaiwanae]

Circa 8min. into this presentation our host made a valid point that even with all mights of E.Roman (Belisarius et successor) still too difficult to reclaim Britannica and Franklands. I agree, especially with the Franks who had fought alongside Roman so many centuries and against all sorts of Barbarians. The Franks knew Romans too well and would take full advantage of any threats against the Empire in this beautiful timeline. Love from Taipei. Veritatem vis.

[giovannaianni]

Thank you for your ongoing interest in this awsome empire.
Happy new year from your subscriber in Canada. 😊

[РимскийОрел]

Byzantium today would look like modern Greece. In addition, many modern historians, including Mary Beard and Ian Hughes, argue that the Western Roman Empire did not collapse, but simply transformed culturally and politically into the modern "Western Countries"!

[matthewwright]

Another very entertaining video. I think it's quite plausible that Greece/Anatolia could have remained a viable and stable greek speaking orthodox state, and for North Africa to have remained a romance speaking Catholic area. Wouldn't that have been fascinating, and I personally think much better.

[Fokas-nt]

As always, top material from Sebastian. Even his alternate history hypotheses are well studied, well backed up.

[saguntum-iberian-greekkons]

It was very interesting, its a thought i tend to have these days.
A larger Eastern Roman Empire would indeed be less innovative, as smaller realms tend to find solutions in order to survive, so a Byzantine Empire of the time of Basil II would be the one that would innovate, if you think about it, its just a Greater Greece, and Greeks always innovated.
They key is national union, then you have an invincible Byzantine Empire where each noble and civilians would make hard for any invaders to advance.

[JamesAdams-evfc]

I have a suggestion for your store. Recently I saw some artwork inspired by the Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna. There is an especially interesting one of Justinian flanked by his military and church officials. I'm thinking that you might strike up an agreement with the manufacturers of these pieces. You can get unframed, framed, and stretched canvas versions of these works. The one with Justinian is very somber: you can imagine the risks with trying to rebuild the Roman world using pretty small armies.

[opengnosis]

With your white hair..
And those wings behind you, by your shoulders..
What we have here, ladies and gentleman..
Is divine wisdom, being offered..
And I, for one,
One small Iota,
Am grateful, always.
Thank you sir!

[neimadize]

Words cannot describe the joy I feel reading those words in this title.😊

[hayots_lernashkharh]

1:18 image. im armenian. a futuristic armenia holding onto its traditional cultural styles seems so cool to me 🇦🇲❤️

[miramax]

The Western Roman Empire fell because albeit it was recovered by Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Empire could not efficiently protect and keep it under Imperial control due to its constant wars with the Bulgarians and the unbelievers in the North and East. Then came the donation of Pepin and the coronation of Charles I, and things became very complicated.
Make no mistake, had the East not been engaged in those devastating wars for survival, it would have certainly returned to reclaim the West under the Imperial banner. Manuel I, strongly believed in this wet dream, starting by Italy.

[al-qadi]

In general, I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's consultancy on such topics