<P> The Western Roman Empire existed intermittently in several periods between the 3rd and 5th centuries , after Diocletian 's Tetrarchy and the reunifications associated with Constantine the Great and Julian the Apostate ( 331 / 2 -- 363 ) . Theodosius I divided the Empire upon his death ( in 395 ) between his two sons . Finally , eighty - five years later in AD 480 , Zeno of the Eastern Empire recognized the reality of the Western Empire 's reduced domain -- effective central control had ceased to exist even in the Italian Peninsula -- after the deposition of Romulus Augustus and the subsequent death of Julius Nepos , and therefore abolished the Western court and proclaimed himself the sole emperor of the Roman Empire . </P>
the ruler of the holy roman empire that split his empire in half between his two sons was who
Theodosius I