Title: Divorce and Decline: The Division of East and West Roman Empires | History Hit
Headings: Divorce and Decline: The Division of East and West Roman Empires
Divorce and Decline: The Division of East and West Roman Empires
Colin Ricketts
East weakening west
The fall of Rome
The West crumbles under its own weight

Content: This did not take into account the economic disparities between the two halves of the Empire, and the extra taxes on the West served to further cripple their economy, which had dwindled due to the constant pressures of war and low trade. The coinage of Constantine’s Empire. His economic policies were one of the reasons for the decline of the west and the sundering of the Empire. The fall of Rome
BY 410 AD it was clear that the East and West had become separate entities. Rome was sacked by the Visigoths under King Alaric and no help came from the East. To those living in Constantinople, Rome was merely a symbol, a memory of a former time, not of any political of strategic importance. The highest ranking political official in residence was the bishop of Rome. Many historians cite the actual fall of the Western Empire as 476 AD. At this time the Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by a man named Odoacer, who lead a revolt of the many Germanic ‘barbarian’ peoples that now inhabited that part of the Empire, against the Latins in power. After he successfully removed Augustulus from command he sent the emperor’s iconic imperial regalia, sceptre, and robes with a message saying: ‘