Constantine and Christianity
Constantine was born on February 27, 272 or 273 at Naissus to a couple named Flavius and Helena Constantius. Constantine's father, Flavius Constantius, was an army offer who divorced his wife and mother of Constantine in 289 to marry Theodora who was the daughter of his commander (Arakaki par, 5). Constantine started his own military career that saw him conquer the Roman Empire and became the next Emperor at a time when Christianity or the early church was experiencing one of the bloodiest and fiercest persecution known as the Diocletian persecution. During this period of persecution by the Roman government, many Christians lost their lives while scriptures were burned and churches destroyed. Constantine later converted to Christianity and made significant contributions to the expansion and evolution of the early church.
One of the major ways through which Emperor Constantine contributed to the expansion and evolution of the early church was through favoring Christianity over other religions. When Constantine was born, Christianity was one of the religions practiced in the Roman Empire since there were other religious groups that existed...
fall of the Roman Empire? The decline and eventual fall of the Roman Empire happened in the third century. Rome had made many enemies and grew from a revered unchallenged leader of the Mediterranean to a rather weary empire surrounded by a myriad of enemies. Rome experienced a number of significant military defeats over the time. The most significant contributor to the fall of the empire though was the economic
Decius had come to the throne at a particularly crucial time. Rome had just celebrated its one thousandth year of rule in 247, but the Goths had attacked Rome in 248. Decius had forced the Goths out of the Danube provinces and in return had been hailed emperor by his troops (he would die fighting the Goths in June 251). In the midst of this crisis, Decius appealed to
Under the ruling of their new king, Alaric, the Visigoths decided that they deserved gold in order to live in decency. Since the Roman government refused to support the Germanic tribe, the Visigoths marched on Rome, defeating the numerous forces gathered to defend the city. In spite of the fact that the Romans were better experienced in warfare they did not stand a chance before the more powerful Germanic
Religion was also of little importance to the people of Pompeii and in addition to the fact that they did not even express an exceptional interest in their gods; they were not connected in any way to Christianity, which greatly influenced the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. "The locations of much of the erotic art, which will be discussed, were discovered within patrician villas, bathhouses, brothels, and taverns"
In a number of letters written by Caesar to Roman writer and historian Cicero, one finds that Caesar admitted "no hope of delivering booty except slaves" from Britannia and confirms "his failure to acquire booty and reports that he is only returning home" to Rome with hostages and the promise of tribute (Arnott, 232). Therefore, Caesar's two excursions into Britannia were miserable economic failures and did not live up to
Roman Empire and the Athenian Empire were alike in many ways. Both developed a culture based on the same mythology in order to unite their people in belief (the Romans Latinized the Greek gods and goddesses but the narratives remained largely the same). Individuals like Socrates in Athens or the early Christians in Rome were persecuted for teaching a faith that opposed the native mythology (Haaren, 2010). Both empires expanded
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