How come Italy used to be the center of the civilized world,

[Genital Doli]

i'm saying that the eastern empire was under just as much pressure from pissed off middle-easterners who didn't want them there as the western empire was under pressure from northern barbarians who didn't want them there.

this is so fucking wrong and you dont know what youre talking about lol, the only "pressure" they were under was from heretical movements in egypt and syria who sought to replace the orthodoxy of the state with various offshoots, but never dreamed of separating politically from Constantinople, and the Persian Sassanids who were mostly fighting border skirmishes with them over shithole regions like Armenia