The Final Division of the Empire and the Germanic Peoples

The empire was briefly reunified under Theodosius I between 392 and 395 CE. Theodosius had already issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE, establishing Nicene Christianity as the official religion of the state, and around 391-392 CE he banned public pagan cults outright. When he died in Milan in 395 CE, the empire was divided between his two sons: Honorius received the West and Arcadius the East, an arrangement that consolidated two separate administrations while the empire remained, in theory, a single political entity. The western imperial capital shifted progressively to Ravenna from around 402 CE for defensive reasons, while the eastern capital was definitively established at Constantinople. In the West, the general Stilicho served as Honorius's guardian and effective strongman, while in the East the ministers Rufinus and later Eutropius held sway at the court of Arcadius.