Why was Rome split in two? (Short animated documentary)

In 395 the Roman Empire was split into two halves. With Rome (later Ravenna) in the west and Constantinople in east playing capital to what was essentially two distinct empires. But given how Roman emperors liked having power and how in the past imperial division had only been temporary, why was this time permanent? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

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[ViktorBezK]

Man the costumes for the characters look really good

[georgeamesfort]

1:57 brand new character expression omg

[canpiv]

"I love Rome so much that I prefer to see two of them" - Theodosius I, probably

[StopThatUselessNoise]

Just to clarify, the division was merely administrative. The Roman Empire was officially united but both halves were administered by their respective 'Augustus'. The two Emperors were often in close contact with eachother and each individual law introduced by an Emperor was enforced in both halves of the Empire.

[HoennMaster]

“Why did Rome split in two?”

James Bissonette and Kelly Moneymaker (RIP) wanted their own halves.

[pridelander]

2:30 I wasn't expecting a Rocky IV reference in a video about Rome, but here we are.

[rl]

“I love Rome so much that I prefer to see two of them.”
-James Bissonette

[ronyYTube]

"If it dies, it dies" 🤣🤣🤣 love the reference

[DayNapling]

If anyone’s wondering. In a 2019 QnA he mentioned that even though he loves doing the 10 minute histories, YouTube’s broken demonetisation policy meant that if one of those videos got demonised his revenue will be severely impacted. As such you decided to split the workload into more shorter videos. That way if one of the videos got to monetise he wouldn’t lose as much money. He did also say that he would love to go back to the eventually if the demonetisation policy permits.

[SebastianEncina]

There must be a way to blame Napoleon for this.

[olefredrikskjegstad]

I was glad to see you did mention the fact that co-rulers and imperial partnerships were actually relatively common. Roman political culture was always a bit muddled and ambiguous. Augustus is remembered as "Emperor" today but he didn’t actually create any new titles for himself, he just held a whole bunch of various titles and powers all at once. The thing about the Roman polity was that they never developed any laws that actually set out how imperial succession should be handled. Like, being the son of the previous emperor absolutely could be a huge point in your favor, but it wasn’t decisive. The Imperial Office was exactly that, an Office rather than an inherited throne, and the burdens and powers of that office could be shared.

[treystewart]

A video on Odoacer's rule over Italy after the fall of Rome and before the Ostrogothic conquest would be cool.

[Hexakinase]

Another part of the split was throughout the third century, there was an incredible turnover among emperors as an emperor would send a general to deal with a problem, the general would do a good job, his troops would hail him as emperor, and he'd topple his old boss. The solution became "only emperors can command large armies, " which necessitated more emperors with an eastern emperor being responsible for dealing with Persia and the western emperor concerned with the Huns (and others). Over time, the separate military concerns pulled economic and cultural factors along, and the east and west functionally became separate polities.

[fungalwinkerbean]

It's always brilliant start to finish, but the expression of the head on a stick was perfect.

[TheBloccobill]

"Brother of the east..i need help..."

"Naahhhh fam you're on your own"

[williamangga]

This episode has one of the best visuals out of other videos. Those territorial changes overtime are superb!

[nadarrow]

dude the quality jumped insanely high. Way to go man this is incredible

[Fredrik-ineg]

"Why was Rome split in two?"
Emperor: "because i said so!"

[joshuawells]

I remember in college someone wrote on a whiteboard, "How was Rome split in two? With a pair of Caesars" and then put it in a dorm window. My Latin professor didn't like it as much.

[davesbibliotheca]

they needed james bissonette at the helm