Rome+and+The+Rise+Of+Christianity

=Rome and the Rise of Christianity = ==By: Lexi Poston  __Welcome To My Webpage__  == ==On my webpage you are able to learn more about Rome and how Christianity came to be. You will be able to learn about the rise of Rome, how Rome went from a Republic to an Empire, the culture and their society, the rise of Christianity, and how the Roman Empire fell. I hope that you will learn a lot and also hope that it will be a fun learning experience. ==

__The Rise of Rome__ In the beginning, the Romans had many struggles, just to get free from the Estruscan kings. Then, the Romans overthrew the Estruscan kings and established a republic. The Republic was run by a group of people called a Senate, which was made up of wealthy land owners, or patricians. The Roman Republic grew and grew because the Roman army defeated other lands. During this time plebians (people that were lower class) were able to be in the army, but were not allowed to be in government or in government actions. The thing was, during this time every Roman male was considered equal, but the plebian males did not agree. After many struggles through Rome's accomplishments, the people of Carthage came along and started a series of wars, called the Punic Wars. In the last punic war the Romans finally defeated Carthage and got control back. Here is where you can see more information on the Rise of Rome. [|More information on the Rise of Rome.]



 Lets move on to the topic: __Republic to Empire__.

__A Roman Republic to a Roman Empire__ During this time, the aristocrats decided that they were going to run Rome and the farmers could not do anything about it. They became very poor because the aristocrats took their land. The farmers then got upset and asked if they could get their land back, but the aristocrats didn't agree and there became a series of civil wars. These wars were called the First and Second Triumvirate. During the First Triumvirate, the Romans had three different leaders to rule Rome; they were Pompey ,Julius Caesar, and Augustus (Octavian). The senate wanted Pompey to rule first, so Pompey was the first ruler of Rome. He didn't last very long because Caesar got mad and killed him. So this made Caesar the ruler of Rome and he marched on Rome. Caesar was then the first dictator of Rome. Caesar didn't last very long because he was killed in battle. So after that, Augustus became ruler and at this point, it was called the "Golden Age of Augustus". It was called this because the civil wars finally came to an end. During Augustus' rule, the Empire expanded and there became a population of more than 50 million people. As you can see, the Roman Empire prospered greatly.



[] **(Pompey Pictures) ** __ [] __  **(Caesar Pictures)** [] **(Augustus Pictures)**

__The Culture and Society of Rome__ In Ancient Rome, the language was Latin and was based on the Estruscan alphabet, which was turned into the Greek alphabet. The Roman language is now Greek. During this time, there was a big gap between the rich and the poor. While the rich were living comfortably in their villas, the poor were placed in crowded, poorly built apartments, called insulaes, that usually collapsed or caught on fire. The rich got extremely good meals that lasted three to four hours daily. The poor, however, was provided with food by the emporers, had leftovers the next day, and most of the time, never had breakfast. The Roman society was based on the families. At the beginning, there were paterfamilias, or paterfamilies, where the male was dominant figure in the family. The children, at this time, were raised at home and the rich children were expected to learn how to read, which meant that the captured slaves were used as teachers. The fathers also arranged the marriages for their daughters and the daughters were married off at the age of fourteen, while the boys were married off later. In Ancient Rome there was not much entertainment, so they would get tickets to go to the coliseum, or the festivals they had. The entertainment at the coliseum were the gladiator fights (most popular), the chariot races, the dramatic performances, and the religious festivals. The gladiator shows were when the captured slaves fought each other with swords and the winner of the fight would advance to the next level. Sometimes they even trained animals to kill. The most popular animal would be the tiger. There was one slave that was a gladiator, Spartacus, and he was one of the most famous gladiators.





To see more information on the culture and society of Rome, visit these sites. [] []

__The Rise of Christianity__ The people of Rome believed in many gods, so this was called a monotheistic religion. Then, Jesus came along and taught that there was only one God. Jesus went around teaching and preaching from the Bible ( God's Holy Word). Many Romans did not believe Him, so they crucified Him ( hung Him on the cross). He was beaten and hung for our sins, so that we may have eternal life. After His death many followers said that He arose from the dead and this is what makes up the New Testament (the second part of the Bible). Below is a video clip that shows the death of Jesus and what He went through. media type="youtube" key="Zb_Fj5GyMig" height="344" width="425"

This video is about Jesus and the cross and how much the Romans despised Him. To see more videos on Jesus, go to this website.

[]
<span style="color: #c445f2; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">__The Fall of the Roman Empire__ Now that we have talked about the beginning of the Roman Empire and the things that occured during this time, we need to talk about the fall of the Roman Empire. The fall of Rome was when the last of the five good emperors ruled and it was at its peak. Everything was going good and then it went downhill. The empire split into two different empires, the West and the East Empires. The West Empire was invaded by German invaders, called Visigoths. Then people from North Africa, called Vandals, invaded Italy. This struck the Western Empire so fast that they had no time to react. The Western Empire then fell in 476 A.D. . The Eastern Empire turned out a lot better and was renamed the Byzantine Empire. All it did was thrive! After these empires fell, many theories came about. The theories that came up were, (1) Christianity weakened the emperor and the empire, (2) lead poison, (3) a plague, (4) no technological advancements, and (5) no working political system. Keep in mind that these were just theories and no one knows for sure how the Roman Empire fell.

I hope that you enjoyed my page and learned a lot, while having fun!! Come back and visit my site again!!

__Works Cited__ McGraw-Hill Companies. "Chapter Overviews." __Glencoe World History Book__. 2008. 1-10 Dec. 2009. <[]>.

Picture of Augustus. <[]>.

Julius Caesar Picture. []>.

Pompey Picture. <[]>.

"Ancient Rome." __Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia__. 8-10 Dec. 2009. <[]>.

"Jesus At The Cross (touching) ." __YouTube__. 2007. 6 Dec. 2009. <[]>.

Thayer Watkins, Silicon Valley, and Tornado Alley USA. __applet-magic.com.__ 8 Dec. 2009. <[] >.