Quote:I know you've done your research on this too, but were you aware that the first bishops in the roman church were the same wealthy patricians who were high priests in the old roman religion? The says to me that the church then had nothing to do with any kind of spiritual revolution and was more like a rebranding of product.
Yes. Some of the earliest popes were real scumbags, too. If I'm not mistaken one was a fucking pirate!
Quote:The East/West division itself had pretty much existed since the triumverate with Octavian and Mark Antony since the provinces were far too large and distant for Rome to effectively govern as the capitol of such vast and distant outposts.
No. Rome had no trouble maintaining her far-flung empire until the military disasters of the mid 3'd century any more than Britain had trouble maintaining her empire in the days before radio communication. The provincial governors, either imperial or senatorial, had great discretion but as we know from Pliny's correspondence they regularly wrote reports to Rome. Those governors were also rotated frequently.