By the medieval period, vastly different. There are stories about when the nobles of the first Crusade visited Constantinople they were thinking how much differ

By the medieval period, vastly different. There are stories about when the nobles of the first Crusade visited Constantinople they were thinking how much different the Emperors of the East were compared to what they knew of the old Roman Empire. As mentioned before the East was always different from the Western empire, but they really drifted apart in the 400's.