Early 3rd century, the Empire was still strong

I'm assuming you know what happened

in the 3rd century crisis?

or want a quick rundown?

Zenobia in the east split from Rome and seized a bunch of land

im aware, again, i simply had my dates wrong

you also forget that i didnt say they DIDNT cooperate or that the split was planned, however that never changes the fact that the "Roman Empire" became two smaller empires..... in that regard the empire fell, it legit lost half its land no matter which empire you look at, even if they are "co-emperors" its still nothing more then a more intermingled alliance

and Gaul and Britannia split

The whole reason

the east and west were formed

is for them to have their own armies, the roman army was spread thin

my point was simply, "when you think med, you think Italy, as Rome conquered the Med, and was great, and has an Italian capital"

nothing more

the east and west made it easier to govern the territories of the empire

and it worked

With the east and west having their own seperate armies, they were better able to defend the empire

and were seen as one entity

they heads of state were co-emperors

works or not, it still doesnt change the fact that they are essentially a more closer alliance, rather then a full empire, the Empire of Rome that the world at the time feared effectively halved in power as far as the rest of the world was concerned

I'd have to disagree

They were seen as Co-emperors who held equal power

same as an actual alliance though

They never saw themselves as the east or west

They saw themselves as one entity

keyword

We just say east and west

*they*

like we say byzantium

the rest of the world saw two smaller empires

The empire had to split to survive

im aware

the empire during the mid 3rd century proved

that one large empire could not be sustained

and the split prolonged the empire

so arguably, the best thing that happened to the empire was the split,

as far as i'm concerned, the empire truly fell in 1453

with the fall of Constantinople

most historians will tell you this

regardless of their reasons and regardless of the fact it worked, it cannot change the fact that the split weakened the Empire...

sure they had a better control of the army as the east and west only had to focus on half the army.... however say a country from the east attacked.... now you hve two command structures trying to mingle in the east to defend, its not efficient, and combat effectiveness goes down

the split army strat only works when each are able to focus on their own land

They were still the same empire, but they were governed differently

it's like saying