HY 1010, Western Civilization I 1 UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE Christianity, End of the Roman Empire, and the Rise of Islam, Byzantine, and the Medieval Period Learning Objectives Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 1. Discuss and define the rise of Christianity and the new political structure and cultural changes it brought in the late Roman Empire and distinguish between emperors who persecuted Christians and those who embraced Christianity and the changes that Christianity brought. 2. Examine encounters between the various Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. 3. Summarize the rise of Byzantine and discuss examples of Byzantine literature, historians, and scientists. 4. Discuss the evolution of the Roman Catholic Church and the role of the pope and how these evolved over time. 5. Differentiate between the Eastern and Western churches including iconography, doctrine and affect of geography on the rise of the Byzantine Empire and religious practices such as pilgrimage. 6. Discuss the development of Islam and define its tenets and what impact Islam had on the boundaries and borders of the Middle East and Europe. 7. Evaluate the changes in the late Roman Empire in terms of political, economic, and social factors. 8. Examine the development of the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire and define the influences on each. 9. Discuss important emperors from late antiquity and the impact they had on law, religion, and other aspects of social, political, and economic development. 10. Define the characteristics of the middle ages and the three civilizations this involved. Written Lecture Unit IV covers Chapters 7 and 8 and begins with the late antiquity period of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire shifted in terms of its political structure from imperialism to a tetrarchy. Growth of Christianity was first met with resistance by Roman emperors, who persecuted the Christians. Later emperors, such as Constantine and Justinian, embraced Christianity and even converted to it. Christianity began to develop its own infrastructure, including the use of bishops, development of the papacy, and rise of monasticism. Religious relics encouraged the Christian practice of taking pilgrimages. As Christianity spread, new communities developed with their own distinct practices, languages, and interpretations of church doctrine. Communities such as the Ascetic, Monophysites, Chalcedonians, and Arians are a few examples of these new groups. Rapid growth in the eastern Roman Empire demanded a second capital city to govern this region. The new eastern capital, named Constantinople, later grew into Byzantium. While Latin continued as the dominant language in the Western Reading Assignment Chapter 7: Late Antiquity: The Age of New Boundaries, 250-600 Chapter 8: Medieval Empires and Borderlands: Byzantium and Islam Supplemental Reading See inf.