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Ancient rome and the rise of christianity
Ancient rome and the rise of christianity
Spread of Christianity in Rome essay
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Saint Constantine Rome’s first emperor to convert to Christianity which at the time it was considered illegally to be a part of any religion that wasn't polytheism. Constantine was born in Naissus, Moesia (modern day Nis, Siberia) to parents Helena and Constantius who were most likely not married when Constantine was born making him an illegitimate child. Constantine gained his throne after his father Constantius died from an illness in York, United Kingdom. He gained the idea of converting to Christianity just moments before he engaged in a battle with his brother-in-law Maxentius. Supposedly, he had a dream about “Chi-Rho” the symbol of Christ and saw this as a divine symbol. He had this symbol painted onto his troops’ shield, and under this emblem they were able to walk away victorious. Because of this later on into his reign he would convert all of Roman’s empire to Christianity. He believed their teachings would unite the previously broken empire but this isn't what occurred . Constantine use of Christianity to lead the Roman Empire caused many issues to rise. I guess this is why you can say Constantine held a huge impact on Ancient Rome. He impacted their religious beliefs, laws and lastly their taxes. …show more content…
After having a dream about the symbol of Christ Constantine began to instilled the idea of Christianity into his everyday life and soon enough everyone else's.
He and Licinius both signed the Edict of Milan prohibiting the persecution of Christians. This opened a new door for Christians and caused a major problem with the question of: what was the official religion of the Roman empire. As time went on and Constantine became the sole emperor he began to persecute christian if they were deemed to be the ‘wrong type of christian’. He also banned any paganistic religious confiscating all their temples and using them to pay for new christian
churches. Constantine is well known for being somewhat of a severely horrible lawmaker. He made law that were all kinds of outrageous but pertained with the idea of Christianity and Rome’s culture. One being if your father pursued a career the generations of sons that would follow had to also pursue the same exact career. Another law was that if a girl were to run away with her lover just like the story of Midsummer’s Night Dream was to be burned alive and anybody who assisted would have molten leans poured into her mouth. Along with this sexually immorality was strictly forbidden . For this last law I guess you could say it could strike up a lot of controversy. The law was that women who were raped away from home were to be punished since Constantine believed women had no business leaving the premises of their home let alone wandering. If any of theses laws were broken they would face a harsh penalties which caused a widespread of fear and hatred. Constantine caused yet but another struggle for his people in his new taxation reform. City dwellers were forced to pay their taxes in gold or silver. For those of the lower class this was quite difficult and if they couldn't pay they were to be beaten or tortured. Some parents claim to have sold their daughter to pay the chrysargyron. The chrysargon occurred every four years during Constantine’s reign. Saint Constantine wasn’t exactly a saint during his reign but more of a major pain in the butt to those who had to abide by his rules. His impact in Ancient Rome was huge but more in a negative way seeing as he took one minority out of hardships and threw the rest of Rome in.
However, this was different compared to Constantine who converted to Christianity and evangelized people to convert to Christianity as well. Constantine ruled as emperor from 306-337 A.D. and was the first Christian emperor of the time and credited
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)
Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, or Constantine, is commonly referred to as the fist Christian emperor of the Roman Empire and as the defender of Christianity. Such grand titles are not necessarily due for the reasons that people commonly think of them today.
The first to try to reconstruct Rome was the emperor Constantine. In his capital of Constantinople, Constantine wanted to reconstruct the city to be an exact replication of Rome. In doing so he reconstructed some of the buildings as almost exact duplicates of the originals of early Roman architecture. Or Constantine's drive to reenact Rome's republic, and turn it back to a government ran by the senators for the people. In fact he was quite successful until it was finally demolished. However, Constantine did further the beliefs of Roman Catholic Christianity, which with its advancement of the army, Rome's religion reached many new lands.
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.
The city of Rome was and is one of the most well-known cities of the world. It has always lured in huge visitors for its attraction for the elaborate Pagan temples or for the eloquent Cathedrals of the Rome. Now the city is known for being the center of the catholic faith. The city is interesting in a way that, it has not always been a Catholic hotspot. The city was originally under the control of the Romans who worshiped Pagan Gods. The Romans believed that Rome was a holy city chosen by their Gods (Cowling). The switch from being a Pagan centered place to a Christian centered place was not as easy transition for the city. It took time and perseverance. As the Christian influence started to build up, the face of the Roman city started to change; the structure of the city was changed, the major public places changed, and along with that major monuments in the city changed. The city changed so much that now if you don’t look closely enough, you might think the city was always under the Christian influence.
Bryan Byerly Mrs. Wagner Western World 10 Seminar- 4 4 December, 2013 Christianity in Rome Essay 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
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 was 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.
This led to a decrease in traditional Roman values because before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire the Roman people had a strong belief in polytheism. Because the polytheistic view was abandoned no one saw the Emperor as a deity which in turn took power away from the Emperor. People began to shift their belief in the city to a belief in one sole deity. With such a large focus on the new religion many religious leader began to rise in political sectors. This was negative for the Roman people because their government was already weak and with the increasing of political power being given to the religious leaders it would only began to further make governing harder. It was really hard for a weakened government that originally based itself on polytheism to change to monotheism because it would only to serve to remove more power from the
Constantine was able to remain true to his religious beliefs and Christianity was allowed to flourish in the open. The edict protected Christians from being tortured by the pagan leaders and restored their places of worship into the hands of Christian leaders. Having possession of their religious artifacts gave Christians encouragement as they returned to worship in their churches. Christian freedom led to their presence in community where they could openly express their religious beliefs and moral values. The pagans continued to try and prevent the growth of Christianity and more wars ensued but at least the Christians now had legal recourse.
The purpose of this essay is to examine the barriers to the spread of Christianity during the Roman Empire. The relationship between Christians, Jews, and the Roman Empire was quite complicated. The Romans became involved with the Jews in 63 B.C.E. as part of their domination of the eastern Mediterranean. Christianity originated 6 B.C.E – 29 C. E. by a Palestinian Jew named Jesus, proclaiming to be the Messiah. The NIV Bible is the primary source for this essay. Leviticus from the Old Testament is written as a series of rituals or laws given to Moses by God. The book of Acts, I Corinthians and Galatians are from the New Testament. Acts was written by Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples, and outlines the spread of Christianity. I Corinthians and Galatians are letters to the early church written by Paul, a leader and missionary. The authors of the books of the Bible record eye witness accounts and revelations from God. The World History I textbook and The Survey of World History/Civilization online content are secondary sources used to connect events in the Bible to historical events during the Roman Empire. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire despite opposition from the Jews, the Romans, and problems with the early church.
Factors Which Led to the Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christianity was not born in a vacumn. There were many social, geographical, historical and religious issues prevailing at the time of Christ and all of which were favorable to the spread of Christianity. Geograpicly, Christianity came into being in the Meditation world, the largest of the various centers of civilization at that time. Israel stands almost central to the five continents, dividing the east and west.
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.
From the third to the fourth century, the Roman Empire witnessed a widespread attempt to stop the spread of Christianity. Initially, leaders of the church were predominately targeted, but later anyone admitting to Christianity became a target. The persecutions hit a climax during Diocletian’s reign. These persecutions actually helped the spread of Christianity by glorifying Christians and beginning a tradition of martyrdom that shaped the Church, and the strength that Christians displayed shows that the persecutions could not have possible stopped the spread of Christianity.
As the greatest empire in the western world began to crumble one city at a time, the leader of the Roman Empire, Constantine, under pressure from external and internal sources moved the capital of Rome to Constantinople around 330 AD. The movement of the capital was after his conversion to Christianity in 312 AD, a growing religion throughout the empire despite being officially illegal. Constantine was not the devote saint that the church may speak of today, “from 312-320 Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title "Pontifex Maximus" in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never understood the theology of Christianity” (Ferguson & Grupp, 1998). The first Christian Emperor claimed to have converted after a victorious battle with his brother and there are many that corroborate this story it appears highly suspicious to only promote Christian ideals and worship. Constantine was not even the Emperor that made Christianity the religion of the Roman people, but simply permitted religiou...