The Rise And Fall Of Christianity And Afro-Eurasia

Throughout history, the rise and fall of empires in Europe had become so prevalent that it was hardly a surprise anymore. There were a great deal of changes in rulers, land ownership, and religion in all the areas of Europe. The area that I plan to focus on is Afro-Eurasia between the times of 300-600 CE. During this time, new borders were made, religions were traded from area to area, and new empires came to be.

Changes in Western Afro-Eurasia

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)

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...

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...s a new Emperor. In 527 CE, Justinian was named Emperor and he was from a long line of Roman emperors. He did many great things to improve Rome such as reforming the Roman laws. He crushed the Vandals in Africa made Carthage part of the “true Roman Empire again. (Tignor, 2011, p. 296) He went head on with the Barbarians from the “old Rome” and was able to gain back most of the control. He created many more churches and made his mark for more than a thousand years of the future Rome.

Work Cited

1. Melton, J. G., & Baumann, M. (2010). Religions of the world: A comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2. Tignor, R., Adelman, J., Brown, P., Elman, B. A., Liu, X., Pittman, H., & Shaw, B. D. (2011). Worlds together, worlds apart A history of the world: V. 1 (3rd ed., Vol. 1). New York: WW Norton &.