Gregory handed the letters to an envoy, a priest named George, with orders to deliver them to the eastern emperor directly.

After Odoacer's defeat in 493, Theodoric ruled Italy on his own, although he was never recognised by the eastern emperors as "king" (rex).

However anxious the eastern emperor might be to get western help and finance in return for ecclesiastical submission, he could not deliver his Church.

The Pope got another submission from the eastern emperor at Florence, in 1439.

Constantine avoided conflict with both Maxentius and the eastern emperors for most of this period.

This raises the question of why an eastern emperor was honoured and the two Augusti of the Tetrachy were not.

Although some eastern emperors occasionally attempted to reconquer some parts of the West, none were as successful as Justinian.

He even seems to have been responsible for Sigismund's most formal letters, those addressed to the eastern emperor.

He wrote to the eastern emperor, who ordered a major expansion of the facilities, the first of three major church expansions which would eventually take place.

The card subjects depict a western and an eastern emperor.