sorry to sound a bit noobish, i know that the empire are around different provinces of tamriel but why are they all there instead of just cyrodil?

how is the empire everywhere?

and how did they manage to be in skyrim years ago?

anyone?

The Empire started out ruling all of Tamriel. They were led by Tiber Septim (a.k.a., Talos). After conquering all of the known world, they kind of just became the main ruling force in the land.

The Empire was originally founded by Tiber Septim (or Talos) when he conquered every land early in the lore.
Tiber Septim (or Talos) originally sarted the Empire from Skyrim (I think)
over time the empire would rise and fall but ultimately managed to keep it's grip on Tamriel over the years.
In skyrim the empire is falling apart again due to nations seceding.
Main reason for there not being just Cyrodil, It would make a lot of the lore and storylines boring. also if you think of it as when Britain a huge Empire, It may of had control and governed all the other nations but they were still seen as separate countries.

That's all I know of the top of my head but i'm sure someone more knowledgeable will answer in more detail and probably correct me on a few points

But the leaders of the Empire are the Imperials from Cyrodil since that's the capital of the Empire.

Look up St. Alyssia and Tiber Septim in the Lore (http://www.uesp.net/). It'll give you the whole history of the Empire.

I do not know the extensive history of the empire, but if you do want to read up on it go to uesp it has a lot of lore in it. This will explain it more in depth. Pretty much you have the first men come to Tamrial through Skyrin. They settle there, but then snow elves attack them and enslave them. You have some of these men who are taken down to where Cyrodiil is and they serve the Ayleid (who are elves). Then you get Ysgramor who comes down with 200 companions and they start killing all the snow elves. From there you get the men down in Cyrodiil who rise up because they hear that th elves are being killed and a revolt is led by Alessia who then hands over Cryodiil to the slaves. From there they expanded with the help of skyrim and this is the first empire. It was mainly just humans expressing human nature and wanting land. They were like the romans, conquered a lot of land just for power and wealth. Going back to the elder scrolls lore though Skyrim was always part of the empire, but until recently some of the nords do not agree that they should bend down to elves and let them decide who they should worship. Hope that helps.

i'll let the others answer your question, but as to it being noobish? naw everyone has to start somewhere and almost everyone on the forums are really nice

thank you gentlemen!

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Amulet_of_Kings
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Arcturian_Heresy
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Legendary_Sancre_Tor
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Battle_of_Sancre_Tor
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Numidium
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Brief_History_of_the_Empire,_Part_1
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Third_Era_Timeline