Whats somewhat sad about the western half of the empire is that the final 100-150 years were just riddled with things that were entirely avoidable and other stu

Whats somewhat sad about the western half of the empire is that the final 100-150 years were just riddled with things that were entirely avoidable and other stupidity like the treatment of the Gauls. But they had a much harder time dealing with the huge influx of displaced Germanic tribes due to the (Mongols iirc?). The western half of the empire started down the road to things like castles and other behavior like large estates that directly fed into the middle ages. Diocletian and his division of things into dioceses also helped, but I think once they started down the path of dual Augustus/Caesar rule it was bound to fail due to the inevitable clashes of personality. That said its a great story. A good overview of things is in the "History of Rome" podcast. http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/ http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/ Its long, but not as bad as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. That book, the horrors.