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Jed Phillips

Dr. Stanek

Hist. 8A

July 23, 2017

Roman Legacy Transformed by Christianity

Christianity played a major role within the Roman Empire, as Rome was a struggling

civilization before its fall around the late fourth and fifth centuries. Christianity became a

quickly popular religion in Rome and is important in understanding the culture. This includes

some of the popular leaders and the transformation of the Roman mentality. It was an extremely

influential religion throughout the empire’s reign, specifically on the people of Rome during its

decline. On the other hand, it provided challenges to other religious beliefs, especially the

Roman religion. While it did propose a challenge to traditional Roman thought, it also had an

impact on learning and philosophy. With its significant impact, Christianity contributed to the

Roman Empire’s legacy, helping to transform it before its fall. In this paper, I will be analyzing

the relevance of Christian impact and importance to the legacy of the Roman Empire.

The Empire of Rome begins with Augustus, or Octavian, as it became a dictatorial state

rather than the previous democratic state. As a leader, he contributed to the reformation of Rome

as he established a new coinage system, public services, and offered more self-government for

cities and provinces, even though he had overall control. Later, Rome experiences new ages in

literature and achievements in art, architecture, and engineering. The cultural advancements led

the way to what is known as the Pax Ramona, or “great Roman Peace.” Following the Caesar

line was the Flavian Dynasty, then the five good emperors. After the death of the final good
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emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and the lack of leadership to follow, problems with Rome began. As

these problems increased, Rome hit a crisis and eventually split into three parts: western, central,

and eastern regions. It was during this time that new military leaders took control of the nation

and hope of recovery appeared into the fourth century.

Christianity is the belief in a single all might God, who created heaven and the universe

and everything in it. Important to the context of Christianity in Rome is the idea of salvation, or

life in heaven after life on earth. As we’ll later see, this is important because it gave hope to the

Romans. It was until Jesus of Nazareth began his ministering that Christianity started to become

known and spread around. However, “the new religion only became widespread during the

chaos of the third century and only triumphed in the Roman Empire during the demoralization of

the fourth century” (World Civilization, Ralph, p. 262). This is important when understanding

Christianity’s impact on Rome because it played an important role in both centuries. The third

century followed the Crucifixion of Jesus and the belief in his resurrection, which was also a

symbol of hope to those who chose to believe in it.

At the beginning of the fourth century, Christianity was just starting to Appear in Rome,

but as it spread, it conflicted with the current state of the empire. It is viewed that “these are the

unmistakable beginnings of an organization which would inevitability soon be co-extensive with

the empire -a state within a state-. . .” (Christianity and the Roman Empire, Hardy, p. 165).

Christians were tortured and killed because their beliefs were against those of the common

Roman. “The emperor, given authority by God, must be honored with a proper respect but he

must not be adored. . . ‘Not only was this kind of thing highly offensive to any good Roman, it

was treason’” (Rome Inc., Bing, p. 178). The idea that a single God is higher than that of the

emperor created a hate towards Christians at that time. On the other hand, Rome had a
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particularly unique religion being that it was polytheistic, as in have many gods or deities. In

essence, “This clash of perspectives between the predominant polytheism practiced by pagans

and Christian and Jewish monotheism initially caused the martyrdom of some Christians . . .”

(Daily Life in the Roman City, Aldrete, p. 164). The new emperor at the time, Diocletian,

decided to do something about the majorities feelings towards Christians. He began a massive

amount of persecutions, which were thought to drive out Christianity for good, but failed to do

so. It wasn’t until later in the fourth century that it became widely accepted throughout Rome.

Back tracking just a bit, Rome was still in a decline that was harming the thoughts and

attitudes of the Romans. The decline was a result of many different things, but Christianity

wasn’t one of them, or at least wasn’t a big part. It did, however, cause a few short-term issues

inside the Roman Empire, but none that would affect it to cause it to decline any faster. A few

different speculations have been made as to why the Roman Empire fell so quickly. The first

group of issues include evidence that “. . . civil war became a recurring problem, as aspiring

emperors competed for the spoils of supreme power” (Complexity and Collapse, Ferguson, p. 6).

Ferguson also includes that “by the fourth century, barbarian invasions or migrations were well

under way and only intensified as the Huns moved west. Meanwhile, the challenge posed by

Sassanid Persia to the Eastern Roman Empire was steadily growing” (p. 6). All this going put a

lot of stress on the empire and with a weakened infrastructure, it wasn’t long before it would

collapse.

Even though all the previous issues were taking place, Christianity slowed down the

declining process. It was the idea of Christianity that impacted the people through the decline.

For example, “Its promise of happiness in the life to come was only one of the things that made it

so appealing” (The Roman Emire, Nardo, p. 74). Rome was struggling, and to hear this would
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quickly grab anyone’s attention because they didn’t have anything else giving them hope. It is

suggested that the Christian’s “message of hope inspired growing numbers of Romans,

especially in the increasing uncertain times that followed the disruptions of the third century”

(Nardo, p. 78). The Romans that accepted this ideal, now had a glimmer of hope. Later on,

Constantine brought this hope back after reuniting Rome and carrying out successful military

conquests in the name of Christianity. However, it couldn’t save Rome from its fall because of

the shape it was already in.

Rome’s legacy entitles being a powerhouse, specifically within the empire, politically,

and in external affairs. The people of Rome had a strong identity in their culture, including their

state religion. Although, Romans were centered around their Government as even their gods

“made no impress on the faith of the common people, who, with that regard for tradition which

characterized the Romans, followed the fathers in their way of thinking” (The Common People

of Ancient Rome, Abbott, p. 23). To have such an impact on the people of Rome, the

government needed a strong political influence. Indeed, they did make an impact in that “of all

the ancient cities (Athens, Sparta, Carthage, or Syracuse) it succeeded in conquering and

preserving for at least two centuries vast territories dispersed over a wide area” (Space,

Geography, and Politics in the early Roman Empire, Nicolet, p. 1). The Roman empire was

constantly expanding and making a name for itself, even during its struggling times in the later

centuries.

In the later Roman Empire, its ideal or legacy was threatened, so Christianity stepped in

and helped to transform it in pursuit to save it. “The Roman Empire . . . was the outcome of the

troubled and confused period of civil war . . ., which lasted more than eighty years . . .” (The

Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, Rostovtzeff, p. 1). Because the Government
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was in a constant struggle between different leaders and the many crisis’s that came from it, the

people had a hard time looking at them the same. Instead, there was this fairly new religion

coming around that gave them some hope, and so they turned their attention towards that.

All in all, the Roman Empire endured a lot leading up to its fall, but was transformed by

Christianity. While “the success of Christianity was by no means a foregone conclusion in 312”

(The Making of a Christian Aristocracy, Salzman, p. 3), it did leave a lasting imprint into the

legacy of Rome. Because of Christianity’s conflictions with the Roman Religion, it wasn’t

accepted so easily. However, after constant struggles within the empire and from foreign

invaders, the Romans needed something of hope, which was this new religion. While the

Romans were a strong group of people, they could not rely on their Government alone to make it

lead their culture. Christianity helped fortify and prolong their strength in the time of their

collapse.
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Works Cited

Abbott, Frank Frost. Common people of ancient Rome. C. Scribner's Sons, 1911. Print.

Aldrete, Gregory S. Daily life in the Roman city: Rome, Pompeii and Ostia. Greenwood

Publishing Group, 2004. Print.

Bing, Stanley. Rome, Inc: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation. Norton,

2006.

Burns, Edward McNall, Philip Lee Ralph, and Robert E. Lerner. World civilizations. Vol. 1.

W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. Print.

Ferguson, Niall. Complexity and collapse: empires on the edge of chaos. Foreign Aff. 89 (2010):

18. Print.

Hardy, Ernest George. Christianity and the Roman Government: a study in imperial

administration. Longmans, Green, 1894. Print.

Nardo, Don. The Roman Empire. Lucent Books, 1994. Print.

Nicolet, Claude. Space, geography, and politics in the early Roman empire. Vol. 19. University

of Michigan Press, 1991. Print.

Rostovtzeff, Michael Ivanovitch. The social & economic history of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1.

Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1926. Print.

Salzman, Michele Renee. The making of a Christian aristocracy: social and religious change in

the western Roman empire. Harvard University Press, 2002. Print.