Did Rome allow its
conquered people
religious freedom?
70 AD: Jewish revolt in Jerusalem crushed.
Why was Rome worried about Christianity?
Blamed Christians for political troubles
Emperor Nero blamed Christians for a fire
Many Christians imprisoned or killed
Who were the martyrs?
Edict of Milan: Decreed Christianity one of the empire’s legal religions
Built churches and made Sunday a holy day of rest
380: Christianity the official religion of Rome
Catholic means “universal”
First Bishop of Rome (Pope): apostle Peter
Christianity changed from a small sect into a powerful and wealthy religion
100s AD: Empire stops expanding
How did this hurt the economy?
Overuse of land led to a decline in agriculture
Reliance on slaves prevents new ideas
Food shortages cause unrest
Fighting with nomadic peoples; Rome needs larger armies
Hired mercenaries with no loyalty to Rome
Soldiers became loyal to their commanders and to gold.
Size of the empire made it difficult to govern.
Government officials corrupt
Less Romans educated
A loss of the sense of civic duty
284: comes to power
Restored order
Placed troops at border
Kept bread prices low
Divided empire in half, keeping eastern half for himself. Why?
Late 300s: Nomadic Germanic tribes begin pushing into Rome
Were these groups “Barbarians”?
Why did these groups make this move?
476: City of Rome conquered by Germanic tribes
Gaul conquered by Clovis; Frankish kingdom established
What happened after the Western Empire collapsed?
Eastern Empire
Lasts 1,000 years longer than the Western Empire.
Capital: Byzantium (Constantinople)
Spoke Greek; thought of themselves as Romans
Ruled 527-564
Armies reconquered western lands
Rebuilt Constantinople
Built schools, hospitals, law courts
Built Hagia Sophia, a church that is today a Mosque.
Justinian Code: legal code based on Roman Law
Who was in charge of the Church?
East & West clashed over who was the final authority on religious matters
1054: The Great Schism
West: Roman Catholic Church
East: Eastern Orthodox Church
Pope has great influence over western kings and emperors
Byzantine Emperor controlled the Patriarch (leader of the Eastern Church) and the Church
Unrest after Justinian’s death
Which groups attacked the Byzantine Empire?
1350: Empire severely shrunk
1453: Turks conquered Constantinople http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/videos#the-fall-of-rome
Romans adopted the epic poem from Greece
Virgil’s Aeneid about hero of the Trojan War Aeneas.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius explained the philosophy of Stoicism in Meditations
Arches, vaults, domes
Roman developments made it possible to build larger, taller buildings
Developed concrete
Roman law is at the heart of many European countries & the US
Equal treatment under the law
Innocent until proven guilty
Legislative assemblies modeled on the Senate
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