12-06-2008, 01:00 AM
Simple : stop fighting civil wars :!:
And that's just to hold on to Justinian's conquests. The Byzantines could have repelled the Lombards, Avars, Slavs, Persians, and Visigoths in the 7th century.
For further expansion, I think Spain would have been the next obvious and worthwhile target for the Byzantines. They already held a strong foothold in the south (about 1/7th of the peninsula). Gothic Spain would have fallen as surely as Gothic Italy did.
From Spain the Byzantines could invade north into Septimania and begin conquering the Franks.
Culturally, Christendom would have been united under a single emperor and Orthodoxy would have flourished with the demise of Arianism in the West and, possibly, of the schismatic sects of the East. Islam would have been extingished or at least contained in the Arabian peninsula. Linguistically, Latin would have survived as the dominant language of the West and continue to be the language of law and the army.
~Theo
And that's just to hold on to Justinian's conquests. The Byzantines could have repelled the Lombards, Avars, Slavs, Persians, and Visigoths in the 7th century.
For further expansion, I think Spain would have been the next obvious and worthwhile target for the Byzantines. They already held a strong foothold in the south (about 1/7th of the peninsula). Gothic Spain would have fallen as surely as Gothic Italy did.
From Spain the Byzantines could invade north into Septimania and begin conquering the Franks.
Quote:what would their government, army, science and technology look like if they made the nessessary adaptations? be realistic nowWell, if all went as I suggested above, the legions would not have evolved into the 'thematic' armies of Heracles' successors. The government would continue as it always did. Science and technology - well, so much knowledge would never have been lost in the first place. Though it's hard to say if the industrial revolution would have occured earlier than it did, IMO. There was little incentive for dramatic technological progress in Antiquity.
Culturally, Christendom would have been united under a single emperor and Orthodoxy would have flourished with the demise of Arianism in the West and, possibly, of the schismatic sects of the East. Islam would have been extingished or at least contained in the Arabian peninsula. Linguistically, Latin would have survived as the dominant language of the West and continue to be the language of law and the army.
~Theo
Jaime
