The Rise Of The Roman Empire

677 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The history of the progress and termination of the Roman republic

Around the fourth century, the Roman Empire was a polytheistic civilization that worshiped many deities. During the time of the conversion from polytheism to Christianity, the Roman Empire was on the rise after the fall of the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic fell due to the demise in their political, economic, and social system that revolved around a monarchy, democracy, and oligarchy. The fall of the Roman Republic caused many Romans to doubt the power of the deities. The emperors of the upcoming Roman Empire wanted to increase their power to keep their empire united. Around 300 CE, Constantine ended the persecution of Christians by converting to Christianity and supporting his new faith with imperial funds and a policy of religious freedom1. Under the rule of Constantine (306-337 CE), the state religion of Western Rome became Christianity. However, the conversion of the state religion took a century or so and was declared the state religion under the “reign” of Theodosius (379-395 CE). Christianity attracted conversion among women and men of all classes, assuring personal salvation, offering social advantages and security from the emperor, nourishing a sense of identity, developing a hierarchy to govern the church, and creating devoted communities2. The adoption of Christianity as the state religion coincided with the rise of the Western Roman Empire by Constantine converting his religious views to Christianity during the civil war, placing Christians into high-ranking offices, and providing a greater military power.
In 303 CE, Diocletian wanted to please the gods and eliminate the threat seen to national security by suppressing Christianity through the Great Persecution3. The Great Persecution was unsuccessful bec...

... middle of paper ...

... the army as serving Christ. When the viewpoint of soldiers became the thought of many Romans, the military enrollment grew and the Roman army strengthened. As the Roman army grew, the ability to expand the empire increased as well. Through the expansion of the Roman Empire, Christianity became the main state religion in western civilizations.
Through the rule of Constantine and Theodosius, Christianity became the state religion for the Roman Empire after the fourth century. The Roman Empire became unified and rose to power due to the unification of church and state through Christianity. “The transformation from a polytheist into a Christian state was the Roman Empire’s most important influence on Western civilization.”5 Whether by divine intervention or political necessity, Christianity had a profound influence on The Roman Empire and western civilizations.

Show More
Related

  • Analyze The Changes And Continuities Of Christianity And Universalization

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    From 300-600 CE The Roman Empire allowed new religions to be formed and universalized. The Religion that was associated with The Roman empire was Christianity. Christianity became the religion of Rome because of a man named Constantine who allowed Christianity to spread and flow throughout the empire create a harmony throughout the people. Constantine allowed for the Roman officials to adopt Christianity and this led to the building of the Constantinople. Christianity had basilicas which were opulent churches that were open to all which meant any person could go there allowing Christianity to be very universal. Christianity was also very appealing because the worshiped deity walked on land with the people. Christianity split and became the Roman Catholic church which consisted

    Read More

  • The Rise Of The Roman Republic

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Over the span of five-hundred years, the Roman Republic grew to be the most dominant force in the early Western world. As the Republic continued to grow around the year 47 B.C it began to go through some changes with the rise of Julius Caesar and the degeneration of the first triumvirate. Caesar sought to bring Rome to an even greater glory but many in the Senate believed that he had abused his power, viewing his rule more as a dictatorship. The Senate desired that Rome continued to run as a republic. Though Rome continued to be glorified, the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus finally converted Rome to an Empire after many years of civil war. Examining a few selections from a few ancient authors, insight is provided as to how the republic fell and what the result was because of this.

    Read More

  • Differences Between The Han Dynasty And Roman Empire

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Fall of the Roman Empire

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rome was a major power because it always made certain its own military prowess was preeminent. There have been many ideas presented as to the fall of the Roman Empire. Many believe that Rome declined morally and the violence and decadence of the societal norms led to the demise. Gibbons has been credited with the theory of the influence and transference of Christianity over the Roman system of Gods and Goddesses that perpetrated the fall. Another theory lays the blame at the feet of the Emperor, that the happiness of the people and the functioning of the government was directly correlated with the personal merit and management skills of the reigning authority. This 10 page paper argues that the imperialistic tendencies of Rome over time and the pre-eminence of military expansionism in the latter stages, was the deciding feature of the "fall". Bibliography lists 7 sources.

    Read More

  • Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Roman Empire

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Roman Empire is known as one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever seen. At it’s height, this Empire had peace, economic prosperity and was expanding. Roman cities contributed to a fair amount of this success because they contributed to many advances during Pax Romana and united the empire. After the fall of the Empire, Christianity survived because although the empire separated into many kingdoms they were still being influenced by the religion.

    Read More

  • The Triumvirate of Triggers: Rome's Unavoidable Downfall

    1632 Words  | 4 Pages

    The religious tolerance and cultural acceptance Rome demonstrated during its conquest which kept its inhabitants reasonably happy allowed the seeds of Christianity to be sewn into the empire. Eventually Christianity grew and became the official religion of the empire and ultimately created a culture of disloyalty to the government and apathy to earthly troubles. The economy built on cheap labor and sustainable farming practices left the country out to dry when both of these resources dried up and could no longer support the empire. And Rome’s vast empire became in itself too large to maintain and what was once a small fortified empire grew into a massive and vulnerable one. Ancient Rome is one of history 's great civilizations but it’s inability to overcome it’s own, mostly internal, problems was eventually too much for it to

    Read More

  • How Did Constantine The Great Conversion To Christianity?

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Constantine I (February 27, 280 C.E.- May 22, 337 C.E.), also known as Constantine the Great, was the first Roman emperor to not only abolish persecution of Christians, but he was also the first to convert to Christianity in 312 A.D. Around 200 years later, in 496 A.D. Clovis I (466 C.E.- 511 C.E.), the King of the Franks, converted to Christianity, in which he was called a “new Constantine” . Constantine and Clovis’ reign through Christianity were alike in the way that they decided to convert. However, the two emperors were different in their commitment to God and their impacts on the church and state.

    Read More

  • The Roman Empire: The Fall Of The Western Empire

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rome was one of, if not, the most influential civilization in the western world. Rome once ruled the majority of the known western world, yet it was unable to hold that title. The Roman Empire eventually came to an end just like many other civilization, but the reasons for its downfall are still being debated to this day. Rome didn’t disappear overnight it was a steady downfall that consisted of several different symptoms. Symptoms that when combined together created the perfect storm to bring down the most powerful Empire in the world at that time, at least the western portion of it.

    Read More

  • Rise of the Roman Republic

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many political, economic, sociological causes to the growth and expansion of the Roman republic and later the Roman Empire, but one major factor of expansion that the Romans are most famous for is there Army. There Army was famous for their harsh discipline amongst their own ranks and there mercifulness brutality amongst their enemies. According to our text Roman warfare was characterized by great ferocity and the Roman pursuit of victory was relentless. The Romans had a pragmatic view towards atrocity and massacre that viewed almost any act as justifiable if it eased the path of victory (Goldsworthy 2000) p. 24. The hoplite phalanx which originated by the Greeks and later adopted by the Roman army, demanded great discipline and adherence to orders in order for this group of soldiers...

    Read More

  • Dbq Christianity Research Paper

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    Christianity took hold on the ancient world because it was spread exceptionally fast. Missionary journeys were made every set of to three years and teach people Christianity (Document F). Roman judges held trials for reported Christians, and executed them because they admitted that they were Christian. The trials were held to execute Christians so the Roman religion would continue to flourish and so Christian citizens won’t be more powerful than the government (Documents F and G). This shows that Christianity was gaining a lot of members, really fast, in comparison to the government.

    Read More

  • The Rise of Rome

    597 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Roman Republic began in 509 B.C.E. with the overthrow of the Etruscan monarchy. In 27 B.C.E the Roman Empire began with Octavian Caesar becoming the emperor, this ended almost 500 years of republican self-government. There is much debate over why Rome became so powerful so quickly. Many think it had to do with Rome’s military strength. Others think that it was because Rome knew of and controlled most of the trade routes. Still others believed it had to do with the technology that was advanced during the Roman Republic. All of these factors played significant roles, but which one played the most important role?

    Read More

  • The Fall Of The Roman Empire Analysis

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a scholarly article written by Justin Ott about the Roman Empire and the events leading up to its fall. The article mostly focuses on the military and economy of Rome in the third century A.D. It lists in the beginning a few of the different theories people have of how Rome fell, including led poisoning and the spread of Christianity. The article seems to want to disprove these theories, showing how they are not the main causes for the collapse of Rome. “Gibbon’s arguments in these sections can be accurately summarized as “the insensible penetration of Christianity in the empire fatally undermined the genius of a great people.” The problem with this conclusion is two-fold. First of all, this explanation is too narrow as it is difficult to believe one single factor brought down the empire. More importantly, it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire was by far more Christian than the West, therefore if Christianity was behind the fall, the East should have fallen first.” The article’s audience appears to be historians, or those who are interested in history, or just the Roman Empire. It

    Read More

  • The Expansion of the Roman Empire

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    The War with Veii played a significant role in the expansion of the Roman Empire. The war, which ended in 410 B.C., set in motion an entirely different Roman army. No longer was the army a volunteer militia, instead it became a paying and contractual organization. The “Roman victory brought an end to Rome’s most threatening neighbor and began its rise to prominence in the central Italian peninsula” (www.warandgameinfo.com).

    Read More

  • Essay: Christianity In Rome

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Christianity became more prevalent in Roman society as time went on because it appealed to Rome and what Roman ideals were. In the beginning Romans were skeptical of changing religion, but as the years went by, the Romans adopted and changed. Christianity appealed to the Roman ideals, as it gave certain perks that their current polytheistic religion did not offer to them. The emperors of Rome had many different views on Christianity; some emperors encouraged change, and others were more traditional and wanted to stick to their current, polytheistic religion. Roman views on Christianity have changed drastically from the early years of the Roman Empire to the 4th century, as well as its appeal to the ordinary Roman citizen.

    Read More

More about The Rise Of The Roman Empire

Open Document