Vastator Orbis

The question of how the Roman Empire fell has been a topic of debate and wonder through the ages. Gibbon - still seen today as one of the foremost historians on the subject - wrote in his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire "The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long." He marked the beginning of Commodus' ruinous reign in 180 AD as the beginning of Rome's descent. However, the Empire finally fell in 476 AD - nearly three centuries after this supposed catalyst. Indeed, Rome's history is marred by events that very well could have marked the end of its governing apparatus.

A common trope in alternative history is a Western Roman Empire - or Eastern for that matter - surviving its fall in 476 AD, oftentimes with its ruling apparatus somehow intact, its language minimally changed, and the whole or part of the Mediterranean living in some anachronistic continuation of antiquity. This is, of course, not to dissuade or disparage such a scenario, as there are a number of timelines - here and elsewhere - that explore the possibility of a surviving Roman Empire. This ATL, however, explores the question posed by Gibbon in the 18th Century: How did Rome even make it to 476 AD in the first place?

The third century AD marks a point in Roman history that very well could have spelled the end of the Roman Empire - at least from a traditional standpoint. Constant pressure on all frontiers from Germanic invaders as well as the newly-resurgent Persian Empire, an Imperial throne that was oftentimes contested by usurpers and rebels, a politically-irrelevant senate, a catastrophic drought that left the Nile Delta bone-dry and caused a subsequent Empire-wide famine, rampant disease that wreaked havoc on urban populations, increasing religious tension in a terrifying era, and a debased economy that grew worse with each crisis were all problems Rome faced simultaneously. It was plausible, if not entirely probable, for the Roman Empire as we know it to have split apart forever in the third century.

These problems ultimately came to a head when two de facto separate entities known as the Palmyrene and Gallic Empires broke off from the Roman Empire. In our timeline, these rebellions were ultimately quelled by Aurelian, who was later hailed Restitutor Orbis - Restorer of the World. Though he re-unified the Empire, the Crisis is typically said to have continued until Diocletian's reign in 284 AD. This timeline, however, explores the possibility that the Crisis of the Third Century could have resulted in a permanent fracturing of the Roman Empire itself.

Point of Divergence
In 269 AD, while campaigning alongside Claudius Gothicus, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus - known best in OTL as Aurelian - garnered much favor among the soldiery. This rising star in the Roman military was held as Claudius II's heir by both the military and the emperor himself. In OTL, Claudius Gothicus became deathly ill with what was most likely the Plague of Cyprian, which had already ravaged the populations of Alexandria and Rome. The Emperor traveled back to his camp, where he dies of his illness. In opposition to both the military and Aurelian, the senate rose Claudius' brother Quintillus to the throne. The military, backing Aurelian, forced Quintillus to surrender in 270 AD. However, in this ATL, something happens to Aurelian. Some sources assert that Aurelian died heroically at the hands of invading Goths while others propose Aurelian died a less noble death - perhaps at the hands of an assassin or the very same plague that killed Claudius Gothicus.

Regardless of the circumstance, the man that our timeline remembers as the Restitutor Orbis was dead, and there was a glaring lack of men of his caliber at the time. Though Quintillus was doomed from the start, those that replaced him could not hope to match Aurelian. With the Roman Empire lacking a suitable leader, infighting became increasingly common as the Germanic invasions became increasingly difficult to control. Zenobia's dreams of power seemed to grow more attainable by the day.