Roman Influence On Western Civilization

Medieval History: A Roman Perspective As one learns more and more about history, it becomes increasingly evident how history plays a role in today’s world. In order to understand one’s own world, one must look at past civilizations and view the parallels amongst the groups. One civilization in particular, the old Roman civilization, has many similarities with much of the rest of Western civilization. In order to understand the Roman world, one must analyze the middle ages as a whole first. The middle ages was a period of time from about 500-1500. The term “middle ages” was coined by early modernists to describe the time from Roman civilization to the time of the Renaissance. When one thinks about the middle ages, also referred to as the

Roman geography was based on cities, with Rome being the largest one in the system (Bennet). Just how in America there is a capitol for every state which is also typically one of the most populous, so did the Romans. They also had a considerably structured tax system, which was able to tax both people and property. The rest of the western world today, especially those that live under a capitalist system, are much accustomed to all types of taxing. The Roman system can also be considered the legal system of which the rest of the world bases their system on (Bennet). However, on top of simply having similar political and economic structures, the religious resemblances between today’s world and the Roman world are

Eventually, monotheistic religions, particularly Christianity, were introduced and slowly took way into Roman culture. Although it was not absorbed by the majority of the Roman world during its first upbringings, Christianity was eventually the main religion of the land. Some steps did have to be taken prior to its acceptance, though, such as the Edict of Milan. The Edict of Milan states that Christianity would be tolerated in the entirety of the Roman world and that people who practice Christianity were not to be persecuted like they previously were. This implementation of toleration is synonymous with the first amendment in the Constitution of the United States, which in summary states that the government has no power to prohibit anyone from practicing whatever religion they please. The levels of toleration, although it was a far more gruesome battle for the Roman Christians to obtain it, were fairly similar in that the people at the top of the political system declared that persecution of different religions will