Why did the Roman Empire split?

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Historians see the

death of Theodosius in 395 as the point at which the eastern and

western parts of the Roman Empire split. This was not due to an

imperial decision to do so. It was a loss of unity. It happened

because the two sons of Theodosius, whom he designated as

co-emperors (Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west) were

young, inexperienced and incompetent. Powerful politicians in the

east and the west took advantage of this to conspire against each

other. There was also a plot in the west to seize some of the land

of the east. This was one of two major factors in this development.

The other one was the Germanic invasions of the western part of the

Roman Empire which begun 11 years later. The western part started

to crumble under the weight of these invasions and eventually

fell.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">This part of the empire

lost political cohesion. There was a lot of infighting and a string

of usurpations. There were shadow emperors who were powerful men

who installed puppet emperors and were the effective rulers. One of

them was Ricimer, a Germanic who was commander in chief of the

western Roman army and installed three emperors (Majorian, Libius

Severus and Olybrius). His nephew, Gundobad, installed Glycerius,

but did not hold the strings of power as he had to return to his

native Burgundy to deal with feuds there. Orestes installed his

15-year old son, Romulus Augustus, who was the last emperor of the

west. One emperor, Avitus, was proclaimed emperor by Theodoric II,

the king of the Visigoths.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Some emperors of the

east interfered with politics in the west. One was Leo I the

Thracian, who in 467 proclaimed Anthemius (an eastern Roman

military commander) emperor of the west because he wanted the two

parts of the empire to join forces to fight the Vandals who were

attacking southern Italy and southern Greece for their base in

northwest Africa. He sent Anthemius to Italy with an army and

wanted him to gather troops in the west. In 474 the emperor Leo I

rejected the proclamation of Glycerius as emperor of the west by

the army of the west. He proclaimed his nephew-in-law, Julius Nepos

(Nepos means nephew) emperor of the west and sent him to Italy to

depose Glycerius who surrendered without fighting. In 487 the

emperor of the east Zeno sent his ally, Theodoric the Great, king

of the Ostrogoths (who had been allowed to settle in the eastern

part of the empire) to invade Italy to depose a usurper there. In

theory, Theodoric was meant to be like a viceroy of Zeno. In

reality he became the ruler of Italy.