Roman-Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire were very powerful neighboring empires during third century CE to sixth century CE. Two different readings, On the Conversion of Constantine by Eusebius and Sasanian Empire: Alliance of Religion and Politics by Taraneh Farhid, were compared to investigate the historical significances among Roman-Byzantine Empire and Sasanian Empire. Roman Empire was a united empire under Constantine’s reign but most interactions between Roman Empire and Sasanian Empire occurred in Eastern Roman Empire in which it is called the Roman-Byzantine Empire. The Sasanian Empire was created by Ardashir I, who overthrew the Parthian King, after Roman Empire was created hundreds of years ago. After the comparison of two readings, …show more content…
As Eusebius mentioned, Constantine used Christianity to unify military by giving prayers, and engraving sign of cross, the god symbol onto shields. Constantine proposed Christianity to his soldiers and engraved the sign of cross onto the shields that soldiers used to protect themselves. As a great conqueror, Roman-Byzantine Empire under Constantine used Christianity to unify military to help him expand Roman Empire and spread out Christianity. However, Sasanian Empire took a different approach. Farhid pointed out that “Shahbur II and Khosrow Anoshirvan were the ones who highly promoted Zoroastrianism to ensure the unity of the country and to fight against various elements.” (3). This is the evident showing that Sasanian Emperors favored toward good internal control as in united empire with united religion to help protect the empire with same ideology. In contrast with conquer-favored Roman-Byzantine Empire, Sasanian Empire focused just on “national security” (5), defending rather than conquering and Zoroastrianism in their empire or country. Sasanian Emperors after Ardashir I showed no signs of going out to conquer and spread Zoroastrianism. This is important because Sasanian Empire only lasted for 400+ years and during these years, Sasanian Empire was constantly at war with Roman-Byzantine Empire. This shows that the Sasanian Empire had serious weakness on how they utilize their religion in a religion based
As you can see, the Byzantine and Arab empires had many characteristics that came to define them. Whether it was through their religious beliefs, political structure, or economy, each was able to create a vast, long lasting empire which came to define the post-classical period.
All of the empires in chapter four certainly left their legacy. But what was their legacy about? As I see it, it was more about their destructive features than their ‘greatness’. Every empire had a rise and fall, the fall due to war or conflict. Rome and the Han Dynasty were the major two ‘empires’ with conflict. Next, Persia and the Greek empire’s conflicts.
Did Justinian impact life as we know it because he is such a great ruler, or is he just a follower who keeps trying to hold on to the loose threads of a fallen empire? Some might say that without Justinian, humanity is a step further back. Others may argue evermore that Justinian is a two-faced liar who you cannot trust (Doc. 2). Contrary to many beliefs, Justinian creates a new Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome that is influential to many different cultures, more advanced and educated than Rome, and more economically thriving than the Roman Empire.
Roman Emperor Constantine I founded the Byzantine Empire in 330 CE as a continuation of the Roman Empire in the east. The characteristics of the empire led to the modern definition of “Byzantine,” which means “strangely complicated.” This was true, as in the Byzantine Empire was very chaotic, complex, and strange at times, but it was very massive and influential worldwide. The empire heavily influenced modern religion, laws, and engineering, making it worthwhile learning about the empire. Our ideas about laws and philosophy are borrowed from those of Justinian’s code, which was the main set of laws of the empire.
Constantine lived from 280-337 CE, and in 312 CE moved his army in on Rome and began his powerful uprising in the Mediterranean. Constantine looked to God in all his battles and it was said that he once saw an emblem and was told to put the symbol on his shield i...
Justinian was one of the most influential rulers of Byzantium. When he came into power in 527 AD, he inherited a civilization in disarray. Justinian had a positive impact on the Byzantine Empire. Most notably, he introduced an improved set of laws and conquered many surrounding nations, nearly restoring the former glory of the Roman Empire. In addition to these contributions, Justinian also made advances with the Christian Church and Byzantine architecture.
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 Ottoman Empire were Muslims and included Hungary, Syria, Egypt, Bulgaria, and Albania, and they marched on land. The Ottoman Empire is said to have first appeared somewhere around the 1300’s, and can be related to the decline of the Byzantine Empire. They began conquering Christian lands and by the late 1600’s all Christians were afraid of the “terrible Turk”. It is no wonder that many other people were afraid of the Ottoman Empire since they seem to be really rather powerful and they conquered a lot of land. It was in the 1330’s when the Morroccan Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta passed through Constantinople and became impressed with the Ottomans who seemed to be gaining power rather quickly, he noticed that they had close to 100 forts and
Both the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Empire specifically were two very prominent societies that gained popularity from the fourth to the sixth century. Though the Byzantine and Muslim empires rose at the same time they were extremely different in ways of having separate rulers, beliefs, and people, however they were both greatly influenced by the Roman Empire. They both resembled in ways of their religion, art, and law. They Byzantine Empire was centered around the city of Constantinople and managed to remain in power for more than 1000 years. At the height of their power they were the most powerful both economically and militarily in...
The Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, architecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans.
There were several strengths of the Roman Empire which enabled it to survive for more than four hundred years. These strengths included a strong foundation, having been built off of the Roman Republic; the standardization across the empire of many aspects of life, such as language, law, and especially the extension of citizenship, which made the empire more cohesive and easier to rule; and strong leaders, who were able to utilize the manipulation of the upper class and Senate, and the management of the military.
“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls - the World.” Lord Byron. This essay will discuss the similarities of military, economics and systems of government between the Roman Empire of the 6th century BCE and the United States of America of the 20th century. History has revealed that all superpowers fall eventually, although much time has passed since the glory days of Rome we see in 2015 the largest superpower in charge, the United States. There are many similarities that can be drawn between the American superpower and the Roman Empire such as the same founding of government and both dominated in military, as well as economic similarities. This leads to the conclusion that because the rise to power between the two powers was so similar, the downfall will be equally parallel.
Much of past civilizations have endured many failures and triumphs throughout their existence. In the third century, there were many civilizations that started to flourish. One of these civilizations that started to expand was the Byzantine civilization. The Byzantine civilization, also regarded as Byzantium, was part of the Roman Empire which was divided in 395 AD. Byzantium had shared the same attitude, as the Roman Empire, toward exercising its authority over its citizens and throughout its empire. The Islamic civilization had started thrive in the fifth century. The Islamic civilization was unified together as unison by Islam and it has expanded its civilization throughout parts of Europe through jihad. Because of their expansions throughout parts of Europe, they shared various similarities which include their political system, social structure, and economy.
Both Byzantine and Roman mosaics developed at a similar time which led to the influenced upon one another. They possessed distinct techniques, materials, styles and subject matter. Byzantine structures emphasized on decorative touches while Roman mosaics were greatly functional. Both styles were enhanced in order to honour religious figures and domestic life (Ovadiah, 1987).
Christianity’s history is filled with division, controversy, and conflict. One of the most important people who contributed to the lasting success of this diverse religion was Constantine. While legalizing Christianity in Roman society, he founded the capital of the eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople. Because of this and other great accomplishments, Constantine appropriately earned the name Constantine the Great.