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Roman empire and christianity summary
Roman empire and christianity summary
World history rome and early christianity
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The Christians received the displeasure of the Roman emperors because they did not participate in the worship of the emperor and they were kind of secretive in there worship. Therefore, the Roman emperors believed that the Christians were trying to spread the beliefs that might detiorate the the structure of the Roman government.
The conspiracy was investigated as being part of the fall of the empire. People were led to believe that conspiracy was a huge part in the fall of Rome. The Christians were believed to have conspired against the Romans. Christians were always seen as the ones who are trying to go against the Romans but in reality, the Romans wanted the Christians to not impose their beliefs on others. Christians were seen as the ones who were trying to intimidate the Romans. But really the Romans were trying to prevent people from sharing the Christian beliefs. As part of the religion, Augustus insisted that everyone should view him as God. Augustus didn’t want people to have their own beliefs. He felt that everyone should worship him as the God.That’s what could cause the downfall of an empire, but now the question is, what can make the empire
...eligious practices. Christianity affected not only the Roman Empire but many other countries as well, altering their practices and making way for worship in the present day.
The rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
First and foremost, the Imperial cult required the worship of many different deities and the worship of the emperor himself. As stated before, the emperor was viewed as Rome’s savior and incarnation of the various gods that were worshiped in the Roman Empire. Citizens were required to show worship to these deities and the emperor by performing activities such as burning incense in their names, holding large extravagant banquets in their honor, and offering sacrifices before their images just to name a few. Christians, on the other hand, worshiped no one other than the one true God of Israel and his only Son Jesus Christ. True followers of Jesus Christ felt that partaking in any of the aforementioned worship activities was despicable and nothing more than narcissistic paganism.
Between Pliny’s letter and Livy’s account it’s pretty easy to get the impression that Romans were fairly tolerant of many different religions up until they got in the way. The Christians were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and doing the wrong things. The Bacchanalians were converting elites with a religion that the Romans considered unsavory to say the least. Both the Christians and the Bacchanalians suffered horrendously at the hands of the Roman authorities, and it goes to show that they were only going to tolerate so much from either group before going out on a witch hunt for them.
When he won the throne, similar to Emperor Han Wudi’s conversion to Confucianism in Han Dynasty China, converted to Christianity. Because of this conversion, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Christian way became very involved in government in the Roman Empire. Even though Christianity’s message is a sense of universal love, because of it intolerance of other religions, there was persecutions of pagans that lead to death. It was not until 450 CE. that a small majority of the Roman Empire was Christian. There ultimately was a split in the empire between the east and the west. The Western Empire struggled on its survival unlike the eastern Empire. The Eastern Empire strived because it stayed involved in Roman politics, administration, and armies. Because the east stayed involved within the government, they were able to last longer. The east was able to spread Christianity more effectively than that of the
The Emperor personally invited bishops of the church to spend time with him. He treated them favorably by showering them with gifts. This was usual for a Roman to do this, because most Romans were not Christians. The Christians received ill treatment from the Romans for many years. It was then that Constantine began to send letters around the empire of Rome telling them to allow certain privileges to the Christians.
Perhaps the most notable of Emperor Nero’s damaging actions took place toward the end of his reign when, following the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE, he pinned the blame for the fire on the Christians; proclaiming that Christians were responsible for the catastrophe. His justification and grounds for this allegation are, even to this day, an issue of debate among scholars because it is difficult to distinguish the extent to which the recorded histories were effected by their writer’s personal biases. Whatever Nero’s true intention was, his accusation led to a considerable amount of cruel treatment and persecution directed toward the Christian citizens of Rome. Subsequent to the allegation, the Roman Christians were viewed, and understandably so, as enemies and arsonists,
Constantine felt that the acceptance of Christianity would cause the religion to grow numerically and have greater influence in all areas of society. He also felt Christianity was the best religious choice for the people under his rule and beyond. Without the Edict of Milan, Christians would of been forced to continue secretly meeting in underground churches. Also, the pagan torture would have persisted and the confiscation and plundering of Christian churches would have still remained. Without the recognition of Christianity, the Christians would not have been able to maintain equal status with people from other religions.
The Roman Empire was incredibly large and successful. In the prime of the empire population reached up to 56.8 million people. The land they conquered amasses to an outrageous 1 million square miles. Their influence is so great that even now people can see their imprint in architecture, law, and even helping spread Christianity, the world’s most populous religion. These amazing facts also begs a question. How did one of the world’s greatest civilization fall? Well, the fall of Roman Empire in 476 ACE was aided by ineffective rulers, the crumbling economy, and the invasion of the Germanic Tribes.
Foreign invaders were an issue that caused the fall of the Roman empire, some examples are that the Roman empire was too massive to protect, they couldn’t just put all their legionaries at their borders especially with their troops too concern with their salaries to fight. Because of this Rome hired Germanic mercenaries and tribes to help protect the borders, but later they turned on Rome. The Germanic people could not cross the natural borders of Rome, so they waited for winter and crossed the frozen Rhine and Danube rivers to invade Rome. When the Germanic tribes invaded they destroyed the aqueducts so that there wouldn’t be as much water available to the romans. After the Germanic tribes weakened Rome with the water loss,
The persecution of Christians that went on in the first, as well as the second century, was random and local. Nero was the emperor that started the persecution of Christians. After the Great Fire of Rome, the Christians were blamed and called arsonists, as well as causing them to receive vicious deaths in Rome. During the second century, the Christians were often just ignored. Even at the end of the 5 Good Emperors reigns, Christians still didn’t represent a large part of the Roman society.
When Christianity emerged in the Roman Empire, it was immediately marked as a superstitious and mysterious cult composed of revolutionaries, adulterers, cannibals, atheists, and sexual perverts. Fueled by these rumours, local governors such as Pliny the Younger, began the first wave of Christian persecution lasting from 30 CE - 250 CE. Though violent, resulting in the execution and torture of tens of thousands of Christians, the second phase of Christian persecution was far more violent, with its varying imperial edicts. Diocletian, a common man, launched the bloodiest attack against Christians in 303 CE resulting in the destruction of Christian meeting houses, Christian scripture, and the deaths of thousands of Christians. However, as much as Diocletian tried to squash Christianity, Christians refused to yield. Though much of his reign he wanted to destroy the Christian faith, his reign eventually led to the succession of Emperor Constantine and birthing Christianity as the main religion of the Roman
When Christianity became the religion in Rome, some people accepted the change and some people did not. Christianity was brought into the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine during his reforms after a period of crisis in the late Roman Empire. The change in Religion was too big of a modification to society for some people to handle, and instead stuck with the old Roman religion of polytheism. The change in religion caused internal chaos in the empire because not everyone accepted Christianity in empire when the religion changed. With Christianity becoming the new religion, it also changed where people saw who had power, which changed the people of Rome’s believe in the emperor to God because of the religion change. Before Christianity came to Rome, people believed in polytheism, so emperors were basically gods, so the change represents the acceptance of something else to believe in. While Christianity helped with the fall of Rome, the expansion of the empire also assisted in the fall of the Roman Empire.
The basic principles of Christianity seem to be much more important than most give credit for. Next time you see or think of the basic principles of Christianity, think about what you just read and realize what is really going on. It is likely you under valued basic principles of Christianity before, but will possibly start to give the credit needed and deserved. In my opinion basic principles of Christianity parades along man's streets and man waves back. It enlightens our daily lives, ensures financial stability and is a joy to behold. In conclusion, the Roman Empire appeals to Christianity play a large part in the lives of all. It brings peace, applauds greatness and never hides.