The Theodosian Code

This paper will compare and contrast these two civilizations concerning two of the major elements of society: government and religion. These two areas are important when examining the impact of a particular civilization, because they provide two different perspectives on a particular culture. While the examination of politics allows the power and influence of culture to be understood, the analysis of religion allows the cultural influence of people to be traced. In this paper, the similarities and differences between the governments and religions of Ancient Greece and Rome will be examined, as well as the impact that these civilizations had on one another. Finally, this paper will discuss the impact that these civilizations have had on

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.

Roman law in the republic was often based on custom (Paul-Louis). During the Roman Empire, however, the emperor became the final source of law. Roman law was one of the original products of the Roman mind. They created the Twelve Tables, which was the first Roman code of law developed during the early republic. Roman civil law allowed great flexibility in adopting new ideas or extending principles in the complex environment of the empire. This was to establish laws that allowed greater fairness. Early Roman law

From the first emperor, Augustus, to emperor Constantine, Christianity was illegal. During that time Romans practiced the Pagan religion which meant the persecution of Christians was legal. The emperor after Constantine, Theodosius, was the one who eventually legalized Christianity. This change caused much controversy and decline throughout the empire. The introduction of Christianity especially had a major influence of the decline of Rome.

At its simplest, the purpose Justinian had in mind was to put together the laws in the Byzantine Empire. It was a mammoth task, as you might well dream. In doing this, the laws were accoutred in writing, putting out ancient laws that had been out of date their works that were kept hidden all these years, and laws were interacted that dealt with situations that were good at the time or could be told in the future as needed for future people. The Justinian Code was important as it made easier and broken down a lot of years of living Roman laws and Justinian's own laws and into one system.In four parts, made up the code, and these were the Codex Constitution, Digest, institutions and the novella constitutions Post

In Document E it says that although the Emperor Galerius does not agree with the Christians religion they will be accepted in Roman society. This means that the emperor saw the loss of the Christian's life so terrible he needed to save them before the Roman empire crumbled. Document F expresses that Constantine issued the Edict of Milan to stop the persecution of Christians in Rome for their religion. This shows that the emperors took action so that Christianity could grow and expand as a religion and gain followers to work for the greater good. Document G says that Theodosius created a code that entailed that Christianity was now a state religion and was to be completely accepted throughout Rome. This ended any persecution of Christians in Rome and made the final step for Christianity to become a state religion. The emperors of Rome made laws that stopped the persecution of

Rome was extremely organized in the sense that it had in-depth infrastructure and politics. For example, the Roman road network was most complex and advanced road network in the classical world. (Doc 3) Travel, trade, and military actions were all made quicker and easier. This, of course, kept the empire alive for so long. Rome was also organized politically. From a very early point in its history, Rome wrote extensive laws. This is shown by codes such as the Twelve Tables, detailing points such as different ways to deal with debt. (Doc 7) Codes of law such as this are indicative of Rome’s early political organization. The main purpose of creating laws such as these was to maintain order and control over the people of Rome. Without laws and codes detailing aspects of life, the civilization would not be very effective in governing its people. Not only was Rome highly organized, it also had a significant amount of social progress. This can be seen in the ability for people in the civilization to become citizens. In Rome almost every person living in the empire can be a citizen with the exception of slaves. (Doc 8) This contrasts with other civilizations such as Athens that only offered citizenship to males born in the republic. This social progress found in Rome in combination with the great organization of the civilization aided Rome in lowering unrest and adding to the overall

The governing legal, moral and religious codes of ancient civilizations were written and enforced by a minority that exercised power and authority over the majority. This minority consisted of priests, rulers and elites with established power and influence in society. In these codes of early civilizations, there was an overarching emphasis on maintenance of structure and order in society. Simply put, while these codes reflect the conditions, needs and values of the times in which they were formulated, they also unveil the authors’ agendas to preserve their power by maintaining the status quo. Therefore, these codes acknowledge and uphold the prevailing social, gender and racial inequalities as natural conditions of human existence and reveal the manifold biases present in early civilizations.

Within the Roman Empire, Christianity was banned and Christians were punished for many years. Feeding Christians to the lions were seen as entertainment in Ancient Rome. In AD 313, the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and for the first time, they were allowed to openly worship. Churches were quickly built not just in Rome but throughout the empire, The main beliefs of Christianity The belief of one god, so it was monotheistic and the god that they worshipped was not the emperor so that is why the emperor was upset. The religions started out fairly similar to each other but as I said earlier when there imperial Rome's religion changed there was really no more similarities in the two empires religion.

The ability to be ruled over a constitution gave the citizens guidelines and principles of penalties and un-approved actions one might occur to. The constitution balanced the separation of powers and scheduled elections. All of Roman laws were to be written in the 12 tables. The 12 tables was a constitution concerning laws for the people. Some categories of laws were Concerning judgement and thefts, concerning property which is lent, concerning the laws or real property, concerning public law , concerning religious law and ect. ( ssun.edu) The use of these laws provided a fair nation considering the faults of others and their penalties to society. The 12 tables was was developed in the early days of the Roman republic and the system lasted approximately 1000 years. Some laws concerning the nation were “putting to death …. of any man who has not been convicted, who ever he might be, is forbidden”. Also there were 8 types of punishments which were fines, fetters, flogging, retaliation in kind, civil disagreement, banishment, slavery and even death for any disobeyed laws in the constitution. The evidence proved that the republic of Rome had a constitution as a ruler for the citizens and because of it there was laws for them making it a safer city rather than having chaos without the punishments being recruited.

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.

“With laws unwritten, patrician officials often interpreted the law to suit themselves. In 451 B.C., a group of ten officials began writing down Rome’s laws. The laws were carved on twelve tablets, or tables, and hung in the Forum. They became the basis for later Roman law. The Twelve Tables established the idea that all free citizens had a right to the protection of the law.” (page 156)

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

Although Christianity was initially practiced within Semitic populations of the Roman Empire, by the 4th century A.D the Christian religion had a huge impact to the Greeks and also the early Byzantine Empire. But by this time Christian communities had been established in all the important cities in the Roman Empire. In 313 the next emperor Constantine legalized Christianity throughout the empire. He also

Justice has been misperceived to go hand and hand with rules in which a society must conform to, mostly in due part to the enlightenment era. In the case with the Romans, the laws they established, especially early on, dealing with the spread of Christianity has been interpreted with a sense of disgust for the unfair treatment targeted towards Christians, and later on to those of other faiths. However, I argue that, Roman law, when concerning religion, was used to strengthen the identity of what it meant to be Roman. Furthermore, as Rome, the political institution, was beginning to decay, as an act of acclamation, the formulation of Roman Laws allowed Christianity to be a main means of connection to what it meant to identify as Roman. Utilizing various primary sources, it is evident that faith had been gradually accepted as the dominant form of unity and law, beginning with Emperor Diocletian to Emperor Theodosia, even among emperors, the Catholic faith had shown that all men were under God, and under God they were all Roman.