Monday, March 15, 2010

Notes on Late Antiquity, Early Christianity, and the Byzantine Empire

The Severn dynasty is the last dynast of Rome.

It ends with Caracalla.

After him, the empire is throw into chaos.


The Age of the Soldier Emperors

  • 4rd century BCE
  • All of the emperors are generals and control their own armies.
  • There is no consolidation of power in Rome at this time.
  • Rome is a mess.
  • This age does not end until 284 BCE.

Diocletian

  • Fundamentally alters the form of government.
  • He sets up the dominate.
  • He rules until 305 BCE.
  • He sets up a new government, the Tetrarchy. (it means four by four)
  • He split the empire into West and East. Two people were in charge of the west and two were in charge of the east.
  • There is a war between the two strongest of the Tetrarchs - Maxentius and Constantine I

Battle of Milvian Bridge

  • Constantine wins and becomes emperor.
  • He saw a vision of the Christian cross on the day of the battle. About it, he saw the Chi Rho. All of his soldiers paint this symbol onto their shields.
  • His control of the western empire paved the way for Christianity as the dominant religion for the Roman Empire and ultimately for Europe.

Constantine moved the capital of Rome to Constantinople.

Today, Constantinople is the city of Istanbul.


Late Antiquity

  • Crisis of the Third Century (235-284)
  • War between two emperors
  • Movement of Capitol
  • Christianization of Empire
  • Rome is sacked in 476 BC, FALL OF ROME


Either you have argument that Rome falls (Gibbons) or Rome evolved into Europe. (Toynbee)


Early Christianity

  • Christianity was made illegal at the beginning, so Christians had to meet in secret.
  • The picture of Jesus and the sheep shows that the Christians had to come up with coded language and art to get their ideas across to each other.
  • Catacombs
  • Where and how Christians could meet

Byzantine Empire

  • The Byzantine Empire shrinks almost to nothing in the 400's.
  • The world becomes split in two, which survives even to this day.

Justinian

  • He tries to merge the church and state when he becomes emperor.

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