Cultural, Economical, Religious, And Political Contributions

From around 500 to 300 B.C.E, in Ancient Greece, the area had many contributions to modern Western civilization. Ancient Greece influenced Western civilization politically and socially. Ancient Greece influenced Western civilization with the spread of democracy and impacted Western civilization socially with its style of architecture using columns and the ancient Olympics.

It was this refusal that caused its practice to be illegal and those who chose to stick with the faith were prosecuted. Although people were being killed for practicing, Christianity started to become even more popular. After seeing Christian martyrs risk their lives for the sake of Christianity, many Romans were compelled and attracted to the faith. Also, there were Apostles who traveled around the empire spreading the message of Christianity. Then in 312 CE, Emperor Constantine proposed the Edict of Milan that banned all laws against Christianity. That allowed people to freely worship, without the fear of harsh punishment. He eventually converted on his deathbed. Then in 392 CE, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of Rome. Christianity went from being an illegal religion to the official religion of the Roman Empire.

At one time, all of Rome was united by a common religion. This religion, commonly referred to as the Roman religion, was derived from the religion in Greece. Members of this religion, which included the majority, if not all, of the Roman citizens, worshiped many different gods, including the creator or father god, Jupiter, the sun god, Apollo, the god of inspiring wars, Mars, and many others as well. The popularity of this religion began to decline when Christianity arose. It appealed to the majority of the people, particularly the lower class and slaves, who now had something to put their hope and faith in. This religion spread rapidly, and Roman emperors felt that because it was so influential it would become a possible threat. These leaders began persecuting Christians, but many Romans had already committed to this religion and refused to abandon it because they viewed it as the most important part of their life. This led to a lack of patriotism in Roman citizens who then rejected politics and became independent of the government.

     The government controlled the religion of ancient Rome. Priests were government officials, who were either elected or appointed to office. But by A.D. 100, many Romans had lost interest in their religion. They became attracted to the religions of the Middle East, which appealed strongly to the emotions. Christianity, one of the Middle Eastern religions, gained many followers.

The Greek civilization contributed greatly to the development of modern Western culture. Three of the most important contribution that are the foundations of our society are Language, Philosophy, and Government.

With this spread Romans became very suspicious about the Christian cult. In fact in 35AD, the Senate decreed it a “strange and unlawful11.  They did not like the idea of monotheism, believing to favor one God so highly above others would anger them. The idea of polytheism also supported the Roman Empire, as by worshipping the gods an individual in turn worshipped the emperor in a way and believed the signs of priests and words to the emperors to be directly from the Gods12. Christians also refused to pledge allegiance to the emperor believing their allegiance could only be sworn to God and Jesus13.  Theophilius of Antioch described it as such “The emperor, given authority by God, must be honored with a proper respect, but he must not be adored. You see, he is not God; he is a man whom God has placed in that office not to be adored, but in order that he exercise justice on earth… As the emperor may not tolerate that his title be taken over by those subject to him, so no one may be adored, save God”14. Romans also found the idea that Christians did not make sacrifices to be very disturbing, especially when combined with the fact that they would gather to “drink the blood and body of Christ”15. Sacrifice was the norm throughout polytheism and the fact that Christians refused sacrifice of any kind, to

For many years, Christianity was illegal. Often, it was essentially ignored, but there were time periods where the Christians in all the conquered areas were persecuted for not making sacrifices to the ancient gods. Finally, when Theodosius made Christianity the favored religion of the state and decided the orthodoxy of the New Testament, the era of European Christianity began. The idea of a fully human and yet fully divine messiah began at this time and also the idea of a Bishop in Rome presiding over the entirety of Christianity. All of this set the stage for the Christian beliefs still held today.

The Romans had a religion that they believed in but was not something concrete and was not of having a central idea. The religion was based on a mix of certain traditions and beliefs. Religion was not never really a big factor in their Empire. The Romans were stubborn with religion and this could be the reason they had an attitude towards these aspects of life. According to St. Augustine’s book Confession, he states that there were a lot of fake gods and there were two major religions in the Roman Empire. The very first religion was Paganism and that’s what his father was known to believe. Then the second main religion was Christianity which his mother believed in. The emperor of Rome at this time, Constantine himself was not a Christian when he conquered Rome, but rather he had a religious conversion when he won the fight with contending tetrarchs at the Milvian bridge in 306 AD, with help of image of the Cross. The

Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe. Greek culture influenced the development of Roman civilization because at first Rome absorbed ideas from Greek colonists in southern Italy, and they continued to borrow from Greek culture after they conquered Greece. Ancient Greece has had an enormous amount of impact on culture in the western world. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization. Rome conquered the Greek empire and its civilization, but Greek culture conquered imperial Rome. Furthermore, the Romans willingly

The relationship between Christians and the Roman Empire is complicated to say the least. Before the summation of the primary sources begin there must be a little background information provided. Rome was in power over a big portion of the Mediterranean region. A good portion of Christians lived under Rome’s rule. Rome was a very tolerant state when it came to religious flexibility. As long as you recognized the Roman God’s then they were tolerant with any other practices you decided to have. The Christians would not recognize the Roman God’s and that caused great friction. There are many primary sources historians have found on the relationship between the Christians and the Romans. The majority of the sources being used in this summation are from the Documents of the Christian Church the fourth edition. Also three primary sources from the times of Constantine, the emperor of Rome in the fourth century. The Romans start as thinking of the Christians as criminals, to being tolerant with them, to eventually they embrace the Christian faith.

While both Roman and Greek cultures greatly influenced Western Civilization, Greeks contributed more to the western world than the Romans. The Greeks used their own ideas and thought of new ways to add to their culture, while the Romans mostly mixed and matched ideas from other civilizations and cultures to make their own. The Romans took up the inheritance of the Greeks adapted it to their own language and national traditions. (Grant 2)The Greeks introduced many new ideas and traditions, the most important being democracy - Athenian democracy in particular.

Although Constantine endorsed Christianity and dedicated his New Rome in the East to the Christian God, not all Romans accepted his decree and many did not convert to the new religion. Even all ancients’ cults were banned and closed temples in 391.

Western civilization was the birthplace of Ancient Greek Culture (Athens University 2010). Many magnificent achievements in areas of government, science, philosophy and the arts that still influence our lives produce Ancient Greece (Athens University 2010). Continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its successor the culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece (World Book Advance 2012). The Persian also left an influence on the Greek culture as well. The Roman Civilization came into the picture around the 6th century BC. Romans conquered and over one of the biggest chunks of land in the era. According to Rome Wikipedia the period of the ancient Roman civilization, the post-Roman Republic was characterized by government and headed by emperors and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Beginning 753 BC, the Romans were a polytheistic empire and placed a large importance on religion. Roman religion was centered on the worship of multiple gods, and the belief that the gods influenced nearly every aspect of life. Christianity, the belief in one God, was therefore not allowed within the Roman empire. In addition to being a monotheistic religion, some Christian rituals were often mistaken as cannibalism or incest. Nero, the emperor of Rome in 64 AD, further intensified the hostility towards Christianity. After a widespread fire in the Imperial city, Nero, looking for someone to blame, placed the blame on the Christians. Following this, many Christians in Rome were subject to death. These aspects as well as the violation to the gods made Christianity unacceptable and targeted in Rome. However, despite all of the opposition, Christianity eventually became the main religion of the empire. The establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire can be accredited to Constantine I, who converted many Romans after the Battle of Milvian Bridge, which led to the enactment of the Edict of Milan, and to Emperor Theodosius, who later made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

Early Christian followers consisted mainly of Jewish communities that were living under Roman control. Traditionally, Roman officials allowed different religions as long as they followed the practice of yearly sacrifice to the Roman gods, as they even based their religion from Greek religion. However, Roman officials found Christianity a threat because Christians would choose to follow their God’s laws instead of Roman law as shown by their refusal to sacrifice, causing trouble in the empire. Also, early Christians met in churches, leading officials to believe that they were conspiring against the government, as said by Pliny, and causing further tension between the Roman officials and early Christians. The refusal to obey the obligations to Roman beliefs and the acts of forming suspicious gatherings caused Government officials to feel threatened by early Christians.