The funny thing is that an earlier Roman split-up with less internal strife for supremacy might have made each part more consolidated and able to resist barbarian invasions, as well as given the barbarians less room for playing out different emperors against each other as Alaric did with such skill. A more advanced border to begin with in Germany would of course have meant fever barbarians to deal with, since Franks, Longobards and Alamans would have been Romans already! Still eastern Suebians, Goths, Huns and Vandals might have done their thing much like in OTL.

Indeed there need not be any difference at all in Roman history before the Constantinians¹, except for the different outcome in Germania late in the reign of Augustus. Indeed nothing need go different even if the border Julian had to defend had been the Elbe rather than the Rhine, except that the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain and the Longobard one of Italy would never have happened, and of course that Germany and Britain would have been Romance- speaking! But what, then might have caused a Romance language on an Anglic substrate to be spoken in Britain? A large number of Germanic troops in Roman Britain might of course do the trick with minimal difference in the course of history. But the idea of a breakaway pagan-reactionary Julian empire in Germany which expells its Christians, with those from the north going to Britain, is alluring!

Surely if the West Germanic tribes had been Romanized that would have reduced the extent and range of the migrations. True the Goths and Vandals of OTL toured almost all of the Roman world except northern Gaul which was only invaded over the Rhine ny the Franks and Burgundians. A more easterly border and Romanized West Germanians would surely mean that only the East Germanians would have migrated. Perhaps the Burgundians and Gepids would have ended up in Roman Germania, but likely they’d become Romanized in speech like the Franks in Gaul in OTL.

Gaul remains the most important Roman successor state in the West, largely untouched by invasions. Unlike OTL the south remains or becomes dominant. In MGR Gaul Tolosa is the place to be and the Oc language (GALLIENSEM > ? or GALLICANUM > ?) the one to speak. The Northern speech, nowise called French in MGR, is a patois, spelled according to southern conventions when written at all! The Normans eventually conquer the North, lending it what glory it briefly has. Germania is conquered by the Suabians but remains Latin in speech. Christianity never becomes dominant there, or at least takes longer, because Julian gets some three decades to set things the way he wants it there. Thus many Jews and Manicheans too in Germania/Suabia. Britain initially is cut loose from the empire like OTL, but no pagan invasion! Rather many Christians from northern Germany go there, bringing with them their ‘Anglian’ form of Latin. Brithenig in MGR too would be a blast!

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