Rome initially persecuted Christians but later adopted Christianity as the official religion. Constantine legalized Christianity and the Edict of Milan made it one of the empire's legal religions. By 380, Christianity became the official religion of Rome. However, the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 due to military pressures and economic difficulties. The Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, lasted until 1453 and adopted Orthodox Christianity.

3.  Did Rome allow its
conquered people
religious freedom?
 70 AD: Jewish revolt in Jerusalem crushed.
 Why was Rome worried about Christianity?

4.  Blamed Christians for political troubles
 Emperor Nero blamed Christians for a fire
 Many Christians imprisoned or killed
 Who were the martyrs?

5.  200s: Millions of Christians in Roman Empire
 Why was Christianity popular?

7.  Military leader
 306: Became Emperor
 Persecuted Christians

8.  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

9.  Catholic means “universal”
 First Bishop of Rome (Pope): apostle Peter
 Christianity changed from a small sect into a
powerful and wealthy religion

12.  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

13.  Fighting with nomadic
peoples; Rome needs
larger armies
 Hired mercenaries with no
loyalty to Rome
 Soldiers became loyal to
their commanders and to
gold.

14.  Size of the empire made it difficult to govern.
 Government officials corrupt
 Less Romans educated
 A loss of the sense of civic duty

16.  284: comes to power
 Restored order
 Placed troops at border
 Kept bread prices low
 Divided empire in half,
keeping eastern half for
himself. Why?

17.  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

20.  Gaul conquered by Clovis;
Frankish kingdom
established
 What happened after the
Western Empire collapsed?

22.  Eastern Empire
 Lasts 1,000 years longer than the Western Empire.
 Capital: Byzantium (Constantinople)
 Spoke Greek; thought of themselves as Romans

23.  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

24.  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

26.  Pope has great influence over western kings
and emperors
 Byzantine Emperor controlled the Patriarch
(leader of the Eastern Church) and the Church

27.  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

29.  Mosaic: picture made by
up by small pieces of
glass, stone, or tile

30.  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

31.  Latin evolved into the Romance Languages
 Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian

33.  Arches, vaults, domes
 Roman developments
made it possible to
build larger, taller
buildings
 Developed concrete

34.  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

35.  330: Constantine moves capital from Rome to Byzantium