this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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In general, the Eastern Empire was always the wealthier half of the Empire. But for much of the Roman Empire, the Western half was politically and militarily dominant. By the time of the formal split, however, the Western half was very clearly the less healthy of the two.
The Eastern Empire made some attempts to reclaim control over the West - notably during the reign of Justinian, with the reconquest of Italy and parts of Africa - but ultimately it was less that they didn't see it as worth it, and more that the Eastern Empire (sometimes called the Byzantine Empire in its later periods) could barely hold onto what it already had. It would spend the next ~1000 years shrinking as neighboring polities took bite after bite out of it.