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Which was the superior half of the Roman Empire?

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Poll Question: WHICH IS THE SUPERIOR HALF OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE?
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Bosniakum View Drop Down
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  Quote Bosniakum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Which was the superior half of the Roman Empire?
    Posted: 22-May-2006 at 15:06
Yes of course, but one has to understand that the Byzantine Empire pretty much inherited its power and wealth from Rome, so it really only had to survive, while Rome built itself from a mere city-state into an enourmous empire.  And yes the Byzantine Empire did exist in a totally different world than did Rome but I think a Empire should be judged by its time and standards and its power and influence in its time.  For example the USA is the strongest country today and probably in history too by today's standards. But when comparing the US with empires of the past, and their power and influence in their time, then the US does not seem that powerful really.
"I krv svoju za Bosnu moju"
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tadamson View Drop Down
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  Quote tadamson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-May-2006 at 19:02
To go back to the question........

The latin terms   seniores and  iuniores   (senior and junior) were used for the military units split to serve in the separate sections of the Empire.
In most cases the 'senior' unit was the one stationed in  New Rome (the city we call Constantinople).  Thus, technically, the Eastern half was the 'senior', from the first tetrarchy onwards.
Smile 
rgds.

      Tom..
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Imperator Invictus View Drop Down
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  Quote Imperator Invictus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-May-2006 at 20:10
Actually, the western side had more "Senior Units" than the east at 400 AD.

The west had slightly more infantry units but the east had slightly more cavalry units.

The Notita Dignitatum: http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~halsteis/notitia.htm
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  Quote Constantine XI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-May-2006 at 07:40
In the early medieval period almost no defined nation state was able to hold itself together for very long, while remaining ahead of most of its neighbours in most fields of human progress. Comparitive to her environment, Byzantium was a state which was certainly in a position of primacy for a respectable period of her history.
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  Quote Chilbudios Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-May-2006 at 08:21
Notitia Dignitatum is quite a large list. Using some Ms Office tricks Wink I counted 94 occurences of "seniores" for the Western half and only 23 such occurences for the Eastern half.
It would be interesting to know how many soldiers are there, because each body may have a different size.
 
After reading a summary compiled by others (Philippe Le Maitre, Pierre Riche, 1953-1996) ND accounts forabout 500,000 total number of soldiers. Yet this summary claims some inbalance and that many of these army bodies are only on paper. For instance, it is claimed that between Jura mountains and Atlantic there are only 17,000 soldiers and that for Britannia, Spain and Africa only 45,000 soldiers are ready to defend them.


Edited by Chilbudios - 23-May-2006 at 08:23
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