Administrative division of the empire on the death of Theodosius I
The empire is divided between Theodosius's sons Arcadius and Honorius. Contemporaries did not understand this as creating two empires - the empire had been administratively partitioned repeatedly since Diocletian, and legislation continued to be issued in both emperors' names. The division becomes permanent only in retrospect, which is a small rehearsal of the same problem 476 raises.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Rome · city · Italy
- Constantinople · city · Türkiye
- Roman Law · institution · Mediterranean-wide · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Periodisation of Roman civilisation and the Roman/Byzantine continuity debate
Where to end the Roman Empire is an open scholarly question with several defensible answers - 476, 480, 554, 602, 800 and 1453 among them - and the choice reflects the historian's criterion (western imperial office, state continuity, material culture, self-identification) rather than a discoverable fact. A substantial 'continuity' school treats the eastern Roman state as unbroken to 1453.
Wikipedia (survey article with scholarly citations); Momigliano, Brown, Ward-Perkins, Kaldellis · accessed 2026 · Partly verified
Survey and bibliography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_period ; key positions: A. Momigliano (1936 onwards), P. Brown (late antiquity as transformation), B. Ward-Perkins (2005, 'The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization'), A. Kaldellis (Roman continuity)
Recorded on Rome
- Traditional foundation of the Roman Republic
- Construction of the Via Appia begins
- The Punic Wars
- The Augustan settlement: Octavian becomes Augustus
- Assassination of Julius Caesar
- Caesar crosses the Rubicon
- Inauguration of the Flavian Amphitheatre
- The Antonine Constitution (Constitutio Antoniniana)
- Dedication of Constantinople
- Administrative division of the empire on the death of Theodosius I
- Alaric's Goths sack Rome
- Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus - the contested 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire
- Plague reaches the Mediterranean
- Ottoman capture of Constantinople
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Ottoman capture of Constantinople · 1453-05-29
- Plague reaches the Mediterranean · 1347
- Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus - the contested 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire · 0476-09-04
- Alaric's Goths sack Rome · 0410-08-24
- Dedication of Constantinople · 0330-05-11
- The Antonine Constitution (Constitutio Antoniniana) · 0212
- Inauguration of the Flavian Amphitheatre · 0080
- Caesar crosses the Rubicon · -0049-01-10