Comments by "J" (@jtgd) on "The Longest Lasting Empires in History - How History Works" video.

  1. The eastern empire was de facto separate from the western empire. There’s no definitive event that the split started, but it was still a split, and the eastern empire did not have control or rule over the west, which was effectively Rome before it was an empire You gotta remember, the WRE was Roman longer than the ERE was. Rome originated from the west, And spread east, then eventually fractured into two empires from the sole Roman Empire, then the Empire that was the oldest de facto and de jure part of Rome collapsed, leaving the remnant Eastern. The Roman Empire as a whole civilization split, and it’s original core fell. Byzantines considered themselves Roman, but they clearly became different than what Rome was in. 476. They’re more of a remnant state of Rome, rather than the Rome from 700’s BCE. It’s like the US dividing to east and west, and the Eastern half collapsing. The western US can consider itself American, but it’s lost its original regions, and isn’t a direct respesentative of the US in the east The fact that it split in some social/legal/cultural aspect is what makes it distinct and thus a debatable and questionable “continuation” of Rome. Personally, I think the Byzantines weren’t “Rome”. I think they were a part of Rome and practiced Roman culture, but weren’t merely a whole empire that happened to lose their western half. The fact that there were two emperor’s indicates that the empire was divided by that point. I mean Italy today can consider itself “the descendants of Rome”, since Rome was founded in Italy, and nowhere else, but that too would be debatable as a “successor state”
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  2. Or it’s like saying Alexander’s empire lasted from 336BC to 31 BC, because Ptolemaic Egypt was Macedon’s empire but merely fractured after Alexander’s death, despite having a different dynasty than the other states and not having control over Greece
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  3. It was a RUMP OF ROME! a rump of Rome…
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  4. It’s not considered so. It’s a rump remnant of Rome
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  5. Constantine, for example changed the capital from Rome, but did not make the capital of the empire Constantinople. It only became “the capital” in a de jure sense after the fall of the western empire. It’s split into 2 distinctive monarchies and regions signifies it’s separate existence. They considered themselves Roman, but lost Rome, and it’s “mainland” territories. It’s like the US splitting by west and east, and the Eastern US collapsing as a state, but the west surviving for centuries. You can call it “America”, but you can also consider it “what’s left of what was America” It’s like soisson. They were “Rome” but also a rump state of what was originally an earlier part of rome
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