Constantine The Roman Domain Analysis

Christianity started off with only a few followers, but has grown into the most practiced religion in the world. About 2,000 years ago a man by the name of Jesus was born into the Roman ruled city of Jerusalem. Jesus was raised in a community of Jewish followers, and followed the Jewish law himself. Jesus believed that he was the messiah, the savior whom profits predicted would one day bring peace to the people of Israel. The Romans and and Jewish leaders felt threatened by Jesus because he thought he was the messiah. Jesus would then be crucified by the Romans. Christianity was able to take hold in the ancient world and flourish because of Christianity 's belief in equality, Rome’s biased

Following the precedent of past Roman emperors, Diocletian presented himself as divine, thus invoking the reverence and loyalty of his subjects (Brownworth 6). However, although pagan citizens readily adapted to this declaration, Christians, due to their monotheistic beliefs, were unable to acknowledge and give sacrifices to Diocletian. Consequently, Diocletian, in what would become one of the most monumental blunders of his career, issued an edict to force Christians to sacrifice to him at the threat of death (6-7). From here, his policy only became more extreme. Christians were persecuted, temples were desecrated, and holy texts were burnt. Contrary to what Diocletian expected, however, the pagans defended their fellow Romans, leading to a remarkable period of religious unity and acceptance amongst the citizens of the Roman Empire (7-8). To this end, the failure of Diocletian’s Christian persecution was a significant factor leading to the eventual domination of Christianity in western society due to the fact that it precipitated the empire’s growing toleration of Christian

The Roman Empire was the greatest civilization the world had ever seen, it lasted over than a semi-millennium. For a such great, undefeatable Empire to collapse, there should be many powerful causes. There is an endless debate among historians about the different causes that led to this decline moreover, they couldn’t agree on the most influential factors. In this essay, these different causes will be explored and try to find the direct causes of this decline.

Even though Christians were persecuted on and off during the Roman Empire, Christianity flourished. In the early Roman Empire, when Claudius, Nero, Domitian, and Trajan were emperors, Christianity was banned and Christians were persecuted. Nevertheless, Christians found ways to spread Christianity, and many people converted. As trials occurred and the Empire lost good leaders, the people took security in Christianity and other religions. Christianity grew during the Roman Empire because Constantine helped create the Edict of Milan, Constantine had imperial favor toward The Church, and there was trade routes to spread Christianity to different areas.

He set Rome ablaze and used the Christians as scapegoats. He accused them of arson and persecuted many by burning them alive or allowing dogs to tear them to pieces (Lunn-Rockliffe). Emperor Diocletian (284-305) was also notorious for the persecution of Christians. A fire broke out in his palace which caused him great anger. Like the Romans did to the Christians when Nero was in rule, they blamed them for the fire. Diocletian tormented many of the Christians until they perished (Alchin). After about three hundred years, it became easier for the Christians. Constantine, the emperor of Rome at the time, converted to Christianity. This resulted in the end of the persecutions and the beginning of Christendom. In the year 313, Constantine issued to Edict of Milan. The Edict of Milan granted tolerance of Christianity along with other religions. He declared that Sunday would be the holy day and used to recognize the Christian martyrs. The same legal rights as pagan feasts were applied (Conversion of Constantine). Constantine also became the patron and protector of the church. By 380 A.D., most Romans had converted to Christianity causing Flavius Theodosius to declare the religion the official religion of Rome (History of Christianity in

During the early Pax Romana, Christianity, emerged and it spread rapidly in the Roman Empire. The founder of Christianity was Jesus who used parables with moral lessons to communicate his ideas. Jesus emphasized mercy, sympathy for the poor and helpless, morality, forgiveness, and service to others. Christianity eventually became the official religion of Rome because of its unifying force and the fact that it appealed to all classes in society. The humble, poor and oppressed found comfort in his message of love, equality, human dignity, and promise for a better life. It can be seen that Christianity had the most significant changes in Roman society compared to the other religions. Christianity improved the social, cultural and political way

Many other European countries centuries later (i.e. Spain) would mirror the same evangelism to spread their religion and ideology to other cultures. Individuals or sectors who would resist would often times be martyred or subjected to slavery, in the America’s at least. The difference between the evangelism in the Americas in the 1500’s and the evangelism in Ancient Africa is that many people in Roman Egypt and other colonized Roman colonies, who were oppressed, sought out to find faith through Christianity and were killed for it. They saw hope, and promise through this Christianity. But the Romans saw the Christian church as a threat to their empire (Shillington, 74.) Rather than subjecting their faith towards Roman Gods, they decided to not acknowledge them and were persecuted until Constantine took order and converted to

The Byzantines had a major impact on Christianity. "The Byzantines withstood years of siege by the Arabs hitherto considered irresistible, and in doing so … saved Western Civilization." (A Short History of Byzantium, Document A). There were early attacks on Constantinople that the Byzantines were able to hold off. In holding off the various attacks, the Byzantines kept Western Civilization Christian instead of it being converted to Muslim. The Christian Church of Constantinople and the Christian Church of Rome also split due to an argument over some spiritual interpretations of the Bible. If it was not for the Byzantines most of Western Civilization would be Muslim and not Christian.

Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were very powerful and influential forces around the time that Christianity had began to spread. In Rome’s society, people followed under an emperor, who had strict rules about religion and the type of beliefs one should have. At the time, Rome’s official religion was pagan, but later converted to Christian. Ancient Greece had different religious beliefs than those that Christianity consisted of, but these countries were both powerful and helpful in spreading this new religion. Greece and Rome were impactful on Christian doctrine as well as helping this religion thrive and continue to expand to new areas. With these type of factors in mind, this paper will answer the question “How did Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome impact Christianity?”.

The Byzantine Empire was a successful maritime-based civilization that connected Europe and Asia. There is much debate on whether the Byzantine Empire was a new empire or a continuation of the Roman Empire. Although the Byzantine Empire is made up of old parts of Eastern Rome, it was it’s own new civilization because of different religious beliefs, new advancements in technology, and a far superior economy to that of the Romans.

Christianity is arguably one of the the most influential and important aspects that originated in western civilization. The religion started out as a small sect of Judaism and a man named Jesus spreading his word with a few followers. For centuries, Christians in Rome endured persecution and secret worship. With the appeal of eternal salvation and the hierarchy of the church, Christianity gradually spread, began to rise, and eventually became the prominent religion in Rome. Today, Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in the world.

This was due mostly to the Pagans and the Christians. Paganism was the official religion of Rome at that time, so when Christianity came to be, tension erupted between them. It is believed that the Pagans thought that the Christians would try to drive out the Gods, causing wars to break out between them, lasting many years and depleting most of the money of the Roman Government. Eventually, the Pagans came to the realization that the Christians were not trying to drive out their Gods.

Many historians hail him as a good emperor because of his positive contributions to the Church. Before Constantine's reign the church was underground and was hardly recognized as a legitimate religion, in fact Christians were recognized as cannibals (because of the ordinance of the Lord's supper) or atheists because they didn't believe in Paganism. Christianity started off small, it was an offshoot of Judaism, but it slowly became bigger and bigger and when Constantine came to power it was the second biggest religion in the Roman empire. Christianity became so popular, even Constantine himself converted making the religion the religion of the state. This made Christianity very popular, suddenly high class people and the wealthy started converting,

According to Fulcher, Urban tended to different mistreat of the church, for example, simony and the absence of adherence to the Peace of God. He then asked western Christians, poor and rich, to go to the guide of the Greeks in the east, in light of the fact that "Deus vult," ("God wills it"), the animating cry with which Urban finished his last address. Fulcher, states that Urban guaranteed abatement of sins for the individuals who went toward the east. “"All beyond words the route, whether via arrive or via ocean, or in fight against the agnostics, should have quick reduction of sins. This I give them through the force of God with which I am contributed. O what a disfavor if such a loathed and base race, which loves evil presences, ought to overcome a people which has the confidence of all-powerful God and is made great with the name of Christ!”. In spite of the fact that he presumably did not mean what later came to be called liberalities. The reduction of the sins is tremendously appealing to those who did criminal acts, they achieve chance to get rid of them. They do not need to do an extreme matter, they just need to go and protect Byzantium. Which shows why so many Christians would attend this

Leo the great was the Bishop of Rome in 440, he was the first Bishop of Rome who make an extensive use of the text “You are Peter...” as speaking as the pope himself. Because of his style that strongly influenced by the Roman Law, Leo was one of the greatest administrator in the early church. He took a leading part in the controversies about the nature of Christ. His statement about the person of Christ that “Christ has both a fully human nature and a fully divine nature, and yet was not a split personality” used as one of the main source of Chalcedonian definition on the person of Christ that it was once disregarded. When his personal prestige increased, he convinced Attila the Hun to come back to Rome that minimized the damaged in the city