The Mikado
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« on: June 04, 2021, 11:07:20 PM » |
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I'm not entirely sure if we're putting a very late Western Emperor who represents a missed opportunity to reverse Western Rome's military fortunes, we're going with Majorian over Anthemius. By all accounts, Anthemius' invasion of North Africa to destroy the Vandal Kingdom in 468 was sound and its failure more a result of bad luck and Vandal skill, but it was a bet worth taking. Western Rome reasserting control of (and tax revenue from) Tunisia and Algeria and wiping the Vandals, the most hostile to recognizing official Roman rule, might well have helped Western Rome limp on nominally for another few decades. The Visigoths only really stopped recognizing nominal Roman overlordship once it became clear that, yeah, the Empire had absolutely no steam left. A successful union of North Africa with Italy under Western Roman rule by Anthemius would've probably led to the Visigoths at least nominally going "Yes, of course Gaul and Hispania are still Roman provinces" while doing their own thing in reality, but that's a lot better than then just...stopping to even pretend to be Roman.
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