4 – Geography
The advantageous location of Constantinople is well documented, and it was indicative of the Eastern empire’s better positioning on the map. By the fourth century, various tribes were looking to settle on new territory. The Visigoths, Huns, Vandals, Alans, and others, all set their sights West. That’s not to say the East didn’t have its fair share of problems with invaders. Remember, the Huns launched several invasions and while they caused a lot of damage, they didn’t capture a great deal of territory.
The disastrous Battle of Adrianople in 378, which resulted in the death of Emperor Valens, could have destroyed the Eastern empire. However, future Emperor Theodosius was able to re-establish the empire’s position in the east. In 395, trans-Caucasian Huns raided as far as Syria, and from 396 to 401, the Alans had control over the eastern Balkans. However, no tribe was able to cause major damage in the East or maintain control over its territory.
Matters were very different in the West as the empire gradually lost territory to enemies. As well as suffering the humiliation of 410, the West also pulled its troops out of Britannia and lost parts of Gaul and Hispania in the 410s. Further losses occurred in the 420s, 430s, and 440s, as the West lost Carthage. The empire was clearly only a hollowed-out husk by the time Attila the Hun and his men ravaged what was left. Further losses in Gaul in the 450s meant there was little of the ‘empire’ left. A brief attempt at a revival was snuffed out upon the death of Emperor Majorian at the hands of Ricimer, and there was little left outside the city of Rome which was finally taken in 476.
Aside from the Huns and Alans, the main threat to the East was the Persian Empire. However, the superior diplomatic skills of the officials in Constantinople (which I focus on later) ensured that a long-term peace ensued which was mutually beneficial. While Rome’s enemies felt as if they had nothing to lose, rivals such as the Sassanids recognized the folly of trying to take on a fellow major power. Despite the East’s relatively stable position, it didn’t do nearly enough to help the West during its hour of need.