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Description

My entry on alternatehistory.com's MotF contest , and a cover of the winning map of MotF 40 :

The Crisis of the Fifth Century was by far the greatest challenge the Empire had to go through at the time. Attila’s attacks brought down a swarm of Hunnic raiders and fleeing barbarians, something that the Empire had grown more and more unready to resist. The illusion of Rome’s eternity was shattering. While more incompetent emperors would have failed and led to the Empire’s collapse, the Majorianic Dynasty proved to be the Empire’s salvation throughout the crisis. At first fighting against the barbarians during the reign of Emperor Majorian I, later fighting with the barbarians as allies during the reign of Dominus, the Empire slowly reformed, adapting to the times it was living in.

Emperor Dominus was the one to establish the Foederatio Romanum, the unofficial name the Western Empire received following his reforms, a new set of administrative reforms of the Empire which sought to end the crisis. Under these changes, the Empire would elevate the idea of Foederati peoples to official subdivisions. At first there was a considerable amount of resistance from the barbarian kings, but under both Dominus’ mighty military capabilities and skillful diplomacy, one by one the Foederati of the continental Western Empire acceded to the terms. Under the Federation, Roman Law would be imposed on the barbarian population, ending the Germanic laws that the Goths and Burgundians followed, and subjecting them to Rome, as well as converting to Nicene Christianity. In exchange, the barbarian kings would be granted full control of their own diocese as well as Roman citizenship for them and their subjects. It was a tough price to pay for both the Empire and the Germanic Tribes, but ultimately it was successful. Though Dominus was not able to secure the Vandals of Africa as Foederati, his successor Majorian II managed peace with them, with his revitalization of the Roman Navy and the creation of the Diocese Insularis aimed at stopping the Vandals’ incursions into Rome. As well as granting autonomy to the Germanic Foederati, Dominus also established semi-autonomous Dioceses in the lands outside of Italy, with the aim of countering the barbarians through a delicate balance of power, with the most notable of them being the Diocese Galliae, which under various Duces (military commanders) would later briefly subjugate the Franks and Alamanni into Foederati status, marking the peak of the Roman Federation.

The Roman Federation would ultimately fall in AD 749 to Bulgarian invaders, who would go on to establish the Bulgarian Khaganate and later Empire in Italy and Pannonia. While attempts to continue the Federation and reconquer Italy would spring from Gallia and Hispania, ultimately the Sub-Roman Kingdoms in the West would be ended with the Saxon Conquest of Gallia and later the Mauretanian Invasion of Hispania.

Description

My entry on alternatehistory.com's MotF contest , and a cover of the winning map of MotF 40 :

The Crisis of the Fifth Century was by far the greatest challenge the Empire had to go through at the time. Attila’s attacks brought down a swarm of Hunnic raiders and fleeing barbarians, something that the Empire had grown more and more unready to resist. The illusion of Rome’s eternity was shattering. While more incompetent emperors would have failed and led to the Empire’s collapse, the Majorianic Dynasty proved to be the Empire’s salvation throughout the crisis. At first fighting against the barbarians during the reign of Emperor Majorian I, later fighting with the barbarians as allies during the reign of Dominus, the Empire slowly reformed, adapting to the times it was living in.

Emperor Dominus was the one to establish the Foederatio Romanum, the unofficial name the Western Empire received following his reforms, a new set of administrative reforms of the Empire which sought to end the crisis. Under these changes, the Empire would elevate the idea of Foederati peoples to official subdivisions. At first there was a considerable amount of resistance from the barbarian kings, but under both Dominus’ mighty military capabilities and skillful diplomacy, one by one the Foederati of the continental Western Empire acceded to the terms. Under the Federation, Roman Law would be imposed on the barbarian population, ending the Germanic laws that the Goths and Burgundians followed, and subjecting them to Rome, as well as converting to Nicene Christianity. In exchange, the barbarian kings would be granted full control of their own diocese as well as Roman citizenship for them and their subjects. It was a tough price to pay for both the Empire and the Germanic Tribes, but ultimately it was successful. Though Dominus was not able to secure the Vandals of Africa as Foederati, his successor Majorian II managed peace with them, with his revitalization of the Roman Navy and the creation of the Diocese Insularis aimed at stopping the Vandals’ incursions into Rome. As well as granting autonomy to the Germanic Foederati, Dominus also established semi-autonomous Dioceses in the lands outside of Italy, with the aim of countering the barbarians through a delicate balance of power, with the most notable of them being the Diocese Galliae, which under various Duces (military commanders) would later briefly subjugate the Franks and Alamanni into Foederati status, marking the peak of the Roman Federation.

The Roman Federation would ultimately fall in AD 749 to Bulgarian invaders, who would go on to establish the Bulgarian Khaganate and later Empire in Italy and Pannonia. While attempts to continue the Federation and reconquer Italy would spring from Gallia and Hispania, ultimately the Sub-Roman Kingdoms in the West would be ended with the Saxon Conquest of Gallia and later the Mauretanian Invasion of Hispania.