STUDY GUIDE

Christianity and the Roman Empire

Key Terms:

Jesus – founder of Christianity; believed by the Christians to be the messiah

messiah – a savior in Judaism and Christianity

disciple – a follower of a person or belief

epistle – in the Christian bible, letters written by the disciples

martyr – a person who dies for a cause

Constantine – emperor of Rome from A.D. 312 – 337.

mercenary – a soldier who serves for pay in a foreign army

inflation – an economic situation in which the government issues more money with lower value.

Who were the followers of Christianity?

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

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 Rome’s injustice

Christian Beliefs

·  Taught Jewish beliefs and traditions

·  Only one true god

·  Love neighbors as yourself

·  Forgiveness and love

·  Everlasting life

Roman Fears

·  Afraid followers would outnumber the Romans

·  Believed Christians were saying their god was better than the emperor

·  Feared a revolt against Rome

Why couldn’t 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

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

Economic Problems

ü  Inflation - economic situation when money has less value

ü  Unemployment

ü  Not enough food so prices for food went up!

Efforts to Stop Decline

v  Diocletian:

o  Enlarged the army

o  Built new forts at the border

o  Improved the tax system

o  Divided the empire into 2 parts (with a co-emperor) to make it easier to rule

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.