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

each state in the US is its own country

They were one state, the two emperors were co emperors

yep, and the military will be weakend, because now you have 50 heads of states and 50 independent armies trying to coordinate a battle plan

it really doesnt work as well as you seem to think

Except it was 2, and the 2 armies were literally the reason the Empire survived

It didn;t weaken the empire, its the reason the empire survived

had the empire kept

one army

look at what happened in the 3rd century crisis, it would have just repeated itself

so yes arguably

if you consider them seperate entities they got weaker

but they werent

and thats what im trying to say

they did get weaker, hence the west fell quite soon after relatively speaking, the east survived, but that does that matter when half of the empire died so quickly compared to the other half

I think we're disagreeing over the wording

and not the actual facts

I'm saying it was a single entity, so it did not get weaker

you're considering them seperate entities

what i'm saying is

i am not actually, im considering the command structure as seperate.... as they were

Yes, but they were both technically