Victor ChineduMs. Katherine Muscente AP World History 1 November 2017Changes and Continuity in Rome LEQ Some changes and continuities that Rome went through during the 100- 600 ce is the growth of Christianity in Rome, the position of the emperor evolving to become a monarch, the pagan religion completely gone, and the collapse of the Roman Empire. Romans believe in the idolatrous belief that they had converted to due to the greeks after the death of Jesus.
However Emperor Constantine changed his religion to Christianity by the 4th century, his conversion made Christian population in Rome grow by an incredible amount of new converts. In addition following the conversion of Emperor Constantine to christianity christian symbols and hierarchy were now highly used by state officials and this caused Christianity to represent ten percent of the Roman population. This means because emperor Constantine converted to Christianity about ten percent of Rome population wanted to follow him because they view him as a role model and somebody they looked up to. In conclusion the Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity caused the population of christians in Roman Empire in increase by a shocking amount.
One more continuity and change with the Roman Empire from 100 ce to 600 ce is the role of the emperor changing over the years to become a monarch For example in the first century people saw the Roman Emperor as”first among equals”, the protector of the Republic because he had more power than the people but didn’t want to or acted like a monarch but Diocletian but the fourth century changed what people called him to “Lord and God” (Dominus et Deus) and started the dominant part of history which was making the empire a monarchy. In addition by 600 ce there was no Roman senate, it was gone but there was a senate in Constantinople but it had no power and was just for show.This means the position of the emperor over the years grew to become a much powerful position and was the cause of Rome becoming a monarchy. Furthermore between 100 ce to 600 ce, in those 500 years the position of the emperor grew to become the most powerful position to ever get in Rome.
One continuity and change that had to do with culture was that over the 500 from 100 ce to 600 ce the pagan religion was completely gone. Paganism was destroyed when Emperor Constantine transfigured and made Christianity legal in Rome during 313.Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of Rome in 529, and then encouraged the destruction of pagan temples and shrines. In addition, he closed the last bastion of paganism in Europe(The Academy of Athens) and saints replaced the wide array of minor pagan gods and the churches were built throughout Rome. This means because the conversion of emperor Constantine and Theodosius almost everyone in the Rome converted to Christianity all were forced and all sign of paganism was erased from Rome. In conclusion the destruction of paganism in Rome happened due to the fact that their emperors converted to Christianity and destroyed every pagan temple and shrine they could find.
The last and most important change that the Roman empire experienced in the 100-600 ce was its collapse.Rome’s decline was very visible in 180 ce due to ineffective leadership and outside invasions, they suffered from an era poor of leadership as they were having succession problems and and also having to deal with intervention by army in political affairs destabilized the government because of the number of population of people that lived in Rome being too large. For example, Rome’s inability to have a strong leadership accelerated their collapse. In addition the collapse of Rome’s was the result of expanding it’s territory too wide thus creating a financial burden and making to hard to govern or find the right strong leader. This means if Rome was obsessed with expanding it’s territory and wanted a small city it would likely still be standing today because they would have had enough resources to feed the people still left in it. Furthermore, the fall of the almighty Rome was due to a weak/poor leadership and not having the money to support them In conclusion During the Classical era of 100- 600 ce Rome went through some changes and continuities like the fall of Roman Empire,the spread of Christianity e.
t.c that shaped the world and made it what it is today. Creating some good and bad events.
