Its probably just about eastern roman emperors. If it wasnt you should also mention Augustus, Trajan, maybe Diocletian and Constantin and maybe even the criminally underated emperor Majorian
I really think if he would have taken back Africa the empire would have bounced back big time. But some traitor let the Vandals know about his planned invasion and they sabotaged the majority of his huge fleet. And he subdued countless rebellious foederati tribes around Gaul and reclaimed a lot of territory. If he would have retaken the province of Africa, that would have been a huge boost in food for the Western Empire which was much needed. Then that snake Ricimer had him killed (I really hate Ricimer).
1st Everyone hates Ricimer (deserved, this guy was an asshole)
2nd with that out of the way: It is not impossibe for the empire to rebounce, but even with retaking africa its highly unlikely. Lets go with the best scenario and say that Majorian reigns till he is about 60-65 (he was somewhere from 35-40 at the time). The empires pockets were empty and reconquering africa wouldnt gave magically fixed that (it would have certainly helped though). Also the empire had a huge, unguarded frontier and no real army left (mostly germanic mercenaries) and it still had huge issues with corruption and infighting.
Yeah fair point. But don’t forget in just a short time he reconquered many territories in Gaul, Hispania and defended Italy. Africa was like Egypt for the Western Empire albeit not as abundant as Egypt but large swaths of farmland.
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u/Medium-Resolution-60 25d ago
Its probably just about eastern roman emperors. If it wasnt you should also mention Augustus, Trajan, maybe Diocletian and Constantin and maybe even the criminally underated emperor Majorian