4 ms·
You’re not wrong about the name Byzantium but you are dead wrong about East/West being a later invention. The Romans themselves split it along these lines and
by edgyquant 3y ago
You’re not wrong about the name Byzantium but you are dead wrong about East/West being a later invention. The Romans themselves split it along these lines and even had an emperor for each half before Constantine.
- ffgjgf1 3y agoThey didn’t really consider these two halves to be separate states, the empire was viewed as universal and indivisible by most. Having multiple emperors was perfectly acceptable though, if not entirely practical most of the time.
- nindalf 3y agoThe point you could be missing is that while there was an administrative split, the folks living in the East still considered themselves Roman citizens. Which they were, in law.