Why Did the Eastern Roman Empire Outlast the Western Roman Empire For 1000 years?

The seven fascinating reasons for the longevity of the Eastern Roman Empire

The status of the first Roman Emperor Augustus (Image: Wikimedia Commons), a mosaic of the most important Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (Image: Wikimedia Commons), and a map of the Western and Easter Roman Empire in the background (Image: explorethemed.com)

The United States has existed for less than 250 years. The average life expectancy for 2019 was 72.6 years.

A thousand years is a huge amount of time for human history. For an empire to exist for over 1,000 years (from 395 to 1453) is truly remarkable. Especially, if we consider the Medieval age was so much more politically volatile compared to the present day.

Let’s have a look at seven reasons that caused the Eastern Roman Empire (ERE) to outlive the Western Roman Empire (WRE) for almost a millennium.

1. Easier to defend borders

The Western Roman Empire took the brunt of the barbarian invasions (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

One of the main reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire (WRE) was the barbarian incursions.

WRE had so much longer borders to defend compared to ERE. Yes, the Balkans were severely mauled by the Goths and Huns, but Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and other ERE’s provinces were safe.