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Cake day: March 20th, 2025

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  • I had to look up why there were two empires. I took a guess and thought it had something to do with a split of the Catholic Church. I was about a thousand years off.

    In 286 CE, Emperor Diocletian decided to divide Rome into two sections to try and stabilize the empire. For a hundred years Rome experienced even more divisions until the empire was finally divided in 395 CE and became the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire.

    This division changed Roman life and government forever. There were now two emperors in each empire, and they governed independently. The capital of the Western Empire was Rome, and the capital of the Eastern Empire was Constantinople. Following this split, the Eastern Empire thrived. Constantinople was well-protected because it was on a peninsula that could be easily defended. It was also located on the frontiers of the empire allowing imperial armies to respond more easily to external attacks and threats.

    Source: Students of History

    As for the split of the Catholic Church, it happened in 1378:

    The Western Great Schism began on September 20, 1378 with the election of Clement VII in Avignon, France. He was the second pope elected by the same college of cardinals in six months, and for the first time in history there were two “legitimate” claimants to be head of the church in Rome.

    Source: Christian History for Everyman

    Please note: I just search for these events and have no idea how accurate these websites are. “Christian History for Everyman” sounds a little sketchy…