Diocletian, Roman Emperor, 286 - 305
Wikipedia
Originally Answered: Who split the Roman Empire, and why?
The man who divided the Roman Empire into the East and West was emperor Diocletian. Diocletian was born in Dalmatia, current day Croatia, and lived a fairly obscure life during his early years. This changed however, as he was able to rise swiftly through the military ranks to become a highly respected Cavalry Commander to then emperor Carus. Following the deaths of Carus, who died fighting a bloody campaign in Persia, there was a vacuum of leadership. With multiple generals vying for the title of emperor in the arguably most powerful nation on the planet, Diocletian had to distinguish himself as the dominant force. He fought many battles during this conflict for power, which is now known as the Crisis of the Third Century, finally gaining victory in 285.
Following the stabilization of the Roman Empire, Diocletian quickly decided to split the empire into two sections, the West and the East. Why would someone want to split up the greatest empire in European history? I’ll discuss one decisive reason today.
Firstly, the Roman Empire was massive. About 4.4 million kilometers. All of this land needed a government to manage it as well as protect its citizens in it. This presented a large issue within the Roman Empire, as all of this land had one central body governing it all. Diocletian believed that in order for the Empire to prosper, it would have to be divided into two halves. Diocletian formed the Western Roman Empire and Byzantium, which, contrary to popular belief, was named by Hieronymus Wolf, a german philosopher who lived during the 16th century. The Western Empire would take land from present day Spain, France, England and parts of Germany. Meanwhile, Byzantium would be given modern day Egypt, Greece, Syria, Turkey. This tremendous split of land was thought to allow for simpler systems of governance(Although rather ironically, one meaning of byzantine is a very complicated system).
In hindsight, I believe it was an intelligent choice for Diocletian to split the empire because although the Western Empire dissolved fairly quickly from an admixture of internal strife and germanic invasions, this provided a life line for Byzantium. Had the Roman Empire stayed intact, Byzantium wouldn’t have been able to thrive for as long as it did through the tremendously prosperous silk road, which through Constantinople, was able to connect the Europeans with the trade from the East, namely spices and silk. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Byzantium was able to largely flourish over the next thousand years until it finally succumbed to the Mehmed II-led Ottoman Empire.
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