It must be borne in mind that all these divisions of the great Frankish dominion were, in theory, like the ancient divisions of the Empire, a mere parcelling out of a common possession among several royal colleagues. ♦No formal titles or names of the Frankish kingdoms.♦ The Kings had no special titles, and their dominions had no special names recognized in formal use. Every king who ruled over any part of the ancient _Francia_ was a King of the Franks, just as much as all among the many rulers of the Roman Empire in the days of Diocletian and Constantine were equally Roman Augusti or Cæsars. As the kings and their kingdoms had no formal titles specially set apart for them, the writers of the time had to describe them as they might.[9] ♦Various names of the Eastern Kingdom or _Germany_.♦ The Eastern part of the Frankish dominions, the lot of Lewis the German and his successors, is thus called the _Eastern Kingdom_, the _Teutonic Kingdom_. Its king is the _King of the East-Franks_, sometimes simply the King of the _Eastern men_, sometimes the _King of Germany_. This last name, convenient in use, was inaccurate as a formal title, for the _Regnum Teutonicum_ lay geographically partly in Germany, partly in Gaul.[10] To the men of the Western kingdom the Eastern king sometimes appeared as the _King beyond the Rhine_. The title of _King of Germany_ is often found in the ninth century as a description, but it was not a formal title. The Eastern king, like other kings, for the most part simply calls himself _Rex_, till the time came when his rank as King of Germany or of the East-Franks became simply a step towards the higher title of Emperor of the Romans. ♦Connexion between the Eastern Kingdom and the Empire.♦ But it must be remembered, that the special connexion between the Roman Empire and the German kingdom did not begin at once on the division of 887. ♦Imperial coronation of Arnulf. 896. | Homage of Odo to Arnulf. 888.♦ Arnulf indeed, the first German King after the division, made his way to Rome and was crowned Emperor; and it marks the position of the Eastern kingdom as the chief among the kingdoms of the Franks, that the West-Frankish King Odo did homage to Arnulf before his lord’s Imperial coronation, when he was still simple German king. ♦Final union of Germany with the Empire under Otto the Great. 963.♦ The rule that whoever was chosen King of Germany had a right, without further election, to the kingdom of Italy and to the Roman Empire, began only with the coronation of Otto the Great. Up to that time, the German king is simply one of the kings of the Franks, though it is plain that he held the highest place among them. * * * * * ♦Extent of the German kingdom.♦