Christianity and the Roman Empire

1
Christianity and the Roman Empire

• Who were the followers of Christianity?

Slaves, people who were persecuted/conquered by
Rome, poor were the first people to follow
Christianity
2
Unrest in Judaea

• - Rome conquered Judaea
• - Resented Roman rule
• - Rome punished people harshly who opposed them
• Herod was appointed to rule Judaea
• - People thought a
• messiah would rescue
• them from Romes
• injustice

3
Christian Beliefs

• Taught Jewish beliefs and traditions
• Only one true god
• Love neighbors as yourself
• Forgiveness and love
• Everlasting life

4
Roman Fears

• Afraid followers would outnumber the Romans
• Believed Christians were saying their god was
  better than the emperor
• Feared a revolt against Rome

5
Christianity Spreads

• The roads and trade all over Rome spread ideas.
• Paul (first Saul), a disciple of Jesus, spoke
  Greek and spread Christianity through his travels
  to Mediterranean areas, and through his letters
  (epistles).
• Spread through populated cities where many poor
  people lived.

6
Rome Reacts

• Romans killed many Christians it was a crime to
  be Christian
• Blamed Christians for problems in Rome, both
  natural and man-made
• Emperor Nero blamed Christians for fire that
  destroyed most of Rome

7
Why couldnt the Romans stop the spread of
Christianity?

• Greater number of poor people who were interested
  in the ideas
• People are eliminated, but not the ideas
  themselves
• Disciples kept spreading ideas, often meeting in
  secret
• People who were crucified were seen as martyrs,
  were respected, even by some Romans
• Roads and trade routes kept ideas moving

8
The Fall of Rome

• Reasons for Decline
• Poor rulers such as Commodus
• Roman army was filled with mercenaries who had no
  loyalty to Rome
• Senate lost power
• Empire was too big to govern and protect
• Attacked from outside the empire
• Emperors were generals, NOT politicians. Stole
  money from treasury

9
Economic ProblemsInflation - economic situation
when money has less valueUnemploymentNot enough
food so prices for food went up!

• Efforts to Stop Decline
• Diocletian
• Enlarged the army
• Built new forts at the border
• Improved the tax system
• Divided the empire into 2 parts (with a
  co-emperor) to make it easier to rule

10
Constantine

• Fought for power in the WESTERN half of the Roman
  empire Victorious (won)
• Gave people freedom of worship
• Defeats Licinius for control of the EAST
  Victorious
• Gave credit for his victory to the Christian
  church and established the church in his empire
• Moved the capitol from Rome to a place in
  Byzantium (Turkey) and called it Constantinople
• Eventually, the West FALLS to invasion.
• East stays STRONG.

11
(No Transcript)