[QUOTE=Gilrandir;2053654895]Oh, come on! Next thing you will be saying is that one of you is English and another is Swedish.\/quote]

Actually, I'm part Swedish.

Yet the Eastern empire weathered the assault. Were its citizens different from their western counterparts in the degree of bellicoseness?
There are a number of reasons but it comes down to geography, the Rhine frontier was the one most often breached and as a result Gaul was repeatedly sacked, the Eastern Empire was also more densely populated and had shorter overall borders, making it easier to defend.

Most essentially, however, they had more cash.