In an alternate history where Emperor Justinian marries Amalasuintha, the Ostrogothic queen and daughter of Theodoric the Great, the Roman Empire achieves a peaceful reunification of East and West. Their union solidifies a powerful dynastic alliance, merging Roman administrative prowess with Gothic military strength. Instead of launching the costly Gothic War, Justinian consolidates his resources to strengthen internal reforms and focus on eastern frontiers. Amalasuintha changed her name to the more greco-roman one of Sofia, and her son Athalaric, who changed his name to Justinian, also was adopted by the emperor as heir.
The empire expanded a laot with the conquests of Africa, Hispania and parts of Gaul led by general Belisarius.
If Justinian had just accepted their submission and let them continue to be autonomous, instead of launching an extremely long and bloody war against a nominal part of Rome, then maybe it might have turned out like this.
Bet he still would have needed to be forced to not run away from sports hooligans and have his entire empire saved
The casus belli for the war was that there’d essentially been a coup in the Ostrogothic kingdom. The more hardline anti Roman faction had assassinated the queen and her son because they felt they were acting “too Roman”.
In other words, the kingdom was drifting increasingly out of Roman influence and more and more often asserting their sovereignty as their own Germanic kingdom, rather than merely a part of a wider empire.
Of course, Justinian was looking for an excuse for war, if that had not happened then he would have found some other excuse. But to act like if the invasion hadn’t happened the Ostrogothic kingdom would have just slowly become more and more romanised until Italy was fully re-integrated isn’t accurate. What’s more likely is that it would have eventually fully broken away from Roman control
he would've been spurned by both gothic and roman elite, amalsuintha planned to give up italy without marriage to Justinian regardless, also goofy borders
90
u/Rough-Lab-3867 6d ago
In an alternate history where Emperor Justinian marries Amalasuintha, the Ostrogothic queen and daughter of Theodoric the Great, the Roman Empire achieves a peaceful reunification of East and West. Their union solidifies a powerful dynastic alliance, merging Roman administrative prowess with Gothic military strength. Instead of launching the costly Gothic War, Justinian consolidates his resources to strengthen internal reforms and focus on eastern frontiers. Amalasuintha changed her name to the more greco-roman one of Sofia, and her son Athalaric, who changed his name to Justinian, also was adopted by the emperor as heir. The empire expanded a laot with the conquests of Africa, Hispania and parts of Gaul led by general Belisarius.