rome

An Empire Divided
Rome, an empire whose influence and power shaped Europe and the world to what we know. For 400 years the Roman Empire stood as a symbol of hope and oppression. In the year 329A.D. the emperor of Rome Theodius died and his two sons split the empire into east and west. The empires had many areas that they needed to work on in their new nations, military divided new and old politicians hammering at the young emperors and gold being the driving force of everything within the government.
There were many threats who wanted some of the land and wealth that was inside of the empires. One common enemy that they both faced was the Persian Empire. The Persians boarded Byzantium so they were more directly impacted by this threat however the western empire had some land in Africa who could have come under threat from the Persians if their advance was not halted by the two empires. The western empire had another much larger threat, the Germanic and English tribe’s men where fierce and fought in an unconventional fashion. Both the western and eastern empires had to use tribesmen or barbarians in their armies to keep the cost of the army down and also to inflate their numbers. The west however was unable to get romans to continue to join and move up through the ranks in the army so they ended up having to give some of the more prestigious positions, like captain, general, etc., to the tribesmen. The roman people and government still did not respect the tribesmen this lead to their own armies betraying them and allow their people to invade and sack Rome the first to do this was the Visigoths. With Rome on fire and an army who is betraying their county the western empire was on the brink of ruin. The Western empire watching this all happen took some precautions of their own to ensure this would not happen to them. A few of the tribesmen where given commands of small outpost but nothing ever to large, this lead the tribesmen to be contempt. However, the trade and economic practices where very different and didn’t have many similarities. The eastern empire was run form the trade capital of Constantinople and sister trade node of Venice. Constantinople was known as; the jewel of the empire, the city if the worlds desire for the fact that it was a symbol for Byzantium. The western empire imported many luxury goods but was unable to export anything of value. The massive amounts of inflation lead to an economical collapse. Politics, a game where you either stayed alive and advanced to the top or you tumbled down until you hit rock bottom. The corruption that was in Rome when it collapsed did not move instead it festered and took on new faces and grew its coffers. Politically the Byzantium had a head start on the western empire, because it did not have a large amount of corruption from old Rome. The western empire had all the corruption from old Rome and new Corruption that was brought on by people trying to take advantage of a new weakened Rome. In 400 A.D. the western empire had an estimated 8 senators murdered and another 5 put in prison for treason. The events that transpired within the western lead to the people to dislike the government and make them more welcome to a change, weather that change came peacefully or forcefully. Even though the two empires had the same origins and the possibility to become a powerful economical, militaristic and political power they were unable to maintain their ground for long. With the western empire crumbling to outside oppression and internal conflicts the eastern empire was able to fight off early aggression and stabilize itself internally. The foot prints of both of these empires would be felt throughout Europe and western Asia until the Ottomans conquered the remnants of Byzantium in 1456 A.D. bringing an end to the last of the Roman Empire.