Day 1 Hum Finals.pdf

Rome in Pax Romana (200 years) The Five ‘Good Emperors’ - - Keeping the peace in Rome, not tyrants Peaceful transfer of power Doesn’t have a hereditary succession - Passed down not to a son, but would hand it down to the next rightful heir - Adopted an aristocrat with potential as the next emperor...

Rome in Pax Romana (200 years) The Five ‘Good Emperors’ - - Keeping the peace in Rome, not tyrants Peaceful transfer of power Doesn’t have a hereditary succession - Passed down not to a son, but would hand it down to the next rightful heir - Adopted an aristocrat with potential as the next emperor - No nepotism Brought stability to the empire Roman empire expanded to its height, stopped at Germania, Rhine, and Danube The final ‘good emperor’ was Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) - A stoic philosopher king - Meditations of Marcus Aurelius weren’t meant to be published, like his diary - Hands down the empire to his actual son - 200s: several ‘barracks emperors’; bad years - Emperors who were not always Roman grew up fighting from the outside, favored soldiers, and ignores the city of Rome - Strong military culture - Began the decline and deterioration of the city of Rome Diocletian Reforms - - - From modern-day Croatia Persecuted Christians severely Saw that the Roman Empire was too big to be governed by one person; splits the empire into two halves ie. administrative split into East and West - Introduced Tetrarchy – ‘Rule of Four’ - Similar to a President and Vice President situation for each half - President equivalent is called Augustus (higher rank) - Vice President equivalent is called Caesar (lower rank) Diocletian appoints himself as the Augustus of the East (Greece, Turkey, Alexandria, etc.) Caesar becomes the next Augustus - People were wanting to become the next Caesar - Instead of trying to murder the Augustus, they wanted to become the next Caesar 305 CE – Diocletian retires, forces his co-Augustus to also retire The Rise of Constantine - Father (Constantius) was a Caesar under Diocletian - Constantine’s father - - In 305 CE – Diocletian retires as emperor Constantius raised to Augustus - He got sick and died almost immediately, right after he became Augustus Constantius raises up Constantine to be a Caesar; becomes Constantius’ Augustus 306 CE – Constantius dies; Constantine becomes western Augustus Diocletian’s reforms fail so badly; turmoil on eastern half of the empire - Diocletian comes out of retirement a few times to try to put them back on track 312 CE – Constantine invades Italy - Essentially means that he’s conquered Rome - Creates a civil war - Eastern Augustus makes his way to Italy to try and fix things, Constantine takes advantage of the turmoil to meet the other Augustus in Italy and fight him - Constantine’s vision - When he was invading Italy - Constantine’s mother is a christian, his father was a pagan; Constantine was a christian - He claims that Jesus gave him a vision and God also gave him a vision that if he goes by the sign of the cross, he will be led to victory - Defeats his rivals at the Battle of Milvian Bridgefa Christianity goes from the persecuted religion to becoming THE religion Eusebius, Constantine Emperor Constantine - - 313 CE – Edict of Milan: religious toleration throughout the empire - He made Christianity one of the legal religions Promotes building campaign of churches Hierarchy of the Churches: - Bishop (lowest) - Someone in charge of a city, but not very important - Low lever bishop is placed in unimportant cities. - Metropolitan (Archbishops) - When you’re a leader in a prestigious city - A lot of say and power in the church - Patriarchs - Most prominent cities. - A ‘Father’ - Leader in the most important cities in the world → Who has pre-eminence/most important? Calls together a council 325 CE – The Council of Nicaea - ‘Was Jesus God or just a prophet?’ - Arianism – named after a man called Arius - Denied the doctrine of the trinity - Jesus was a created being; did all that he did as a human and not a god - - - - - Believed that Jesus was God’s first creation - Not an acceptable form of Christianity - In the Council of Nicaea, Arianism was declared a heresy - Lasted for hundreds of years 325 CE – Constantine rebuilds Constantinople - It is now Istanbul, Turkey - ‘New Rome’ Constantine abandons Diocletian’s reforms - Abolishes the tetrarchy - Hereditary succession The empire shifts east - Started to create divisions - Divisions develop between east and west - Beginning of a major language difference between the east and west; Latin vs Greek - Eastern half: Greek - Christianity in the east continues to utilize greek - Western half: Latin began to grow because of Octavian - Christianity in the west started to utilize latin - The city of Rome abandoned; now in Ravenna 337 CE – Constantine dies - Divides the empire among his 3 sons - 3 sons ends up in civil war, one dies in battle, leaving two to fight and will eventually result in a singular ruler - Short return to ‘paganism’ under Julian (360-63 CE) - Julian was Constantine’s nephew - He believed in the traditional Greco-Persian traditions - Referred to as ‘Julian the Apostate’ - Julian dies early on in his reign because of battle - After 363 CE, there are no more non-christian rulers; Julian is the last non-christian emperor of the Roman empire Shaping a New World 391 CE – Emperor Theodosius outlaws paganism - Outlaws non-christian religions in Rome Christianity is the only legal religion Back 100 years 291, hate christians Fathers of Christianity/The Church Fathers - People outside the bible Most important and prolific thinkers - 3 substantial figures: 1. Jerome (340-420 CE) - Translation of the bible from Greek to Latin (Vulgate) Vulgate: The language of the everyday Vulgate – considered the ‘vulgar’ language; the language of the people His translation becomes the primary version of the bible in western Christianity 1960 is when the church finally says you can do masses/services in their own preferred language Comentaries on the bible Jerome was a good commentary on the Bible; vital to become a good theologist - Makes comments on how to ‘properly’ interpret the bible Jerome liked both classic pagan and christian writers - Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, etc. 2. Bishop Ambrose of Milan (340-397 CE) - - - The bishop of Italy He questions who’s in charge? The emperor or bishops? Who has the higher power? The emperor or the church - From emperor pov: he’s in charge of the army, taxes, etc., kind of like an absolute power - From church pov: they have a divine power, the emperor doesn’t have this; power of salvation Clerical power over salvation Theodore, Humiliation of Theodosius - There was a revolt in Thessalonica that the emperor had to stop. Theodosius took it one step further and ordered a massacre for the people in Thessalonica. Viewed as a great sin in christianity. Theodosius was on the way to mass at Ambrose’s church in Milan, to which he was refused entry. ‘You cannot take communion until you have publicly repented’ (because of the massacre of people in Thessalonica). He obeyed this and publicly repented his sin of massacring the people of Thessalonica. - May have been politics too from Theodosius’ side Theodosius massacres subjects - Ambrose denies the eucharist. - Theodosius Publicly repents and listens to the ambrose. - Showcases the churchs power over salvation. 3. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) - A Greco-Roman pagan Didn’t grow up a christian - - - - - Went through a long spiritual journey through greek and roman philosophy - To try to answer the question of: why does evil exist Neo-platonism and Manicheism - Plato’s philosophy continues to evolve - Neo-platonism didn’t give him ‘good answers’ - Manicheism – a mix of platonism, christianity, and persian religion - Main question of: what’s going on with evil - Manicheism says that the god of good and evil are always fighting and the evil we see around us are the evil ‘winning’ Went to Milan to hear the preachings of Ambrose Converts to Orthodox Christianity - Orthodox is opposite of heresy Eventually becomes a bishop in North Africa Writings: Confessions (Autobiography, creator, gets transition of thoughts, nature of time) and The City of God (The first chritsitan version of what heredotus has done, historian after greko persian wars, Augustine provides the first christian history of the world) The doctrine of Original Sin (No write, just popularize) - Everyone after that is born guilty after adam and eve - Everyone is born with a sin. - Which is why people baptist babies, so you believe that washing away the sins of original sin. - No Baptism, baby is born with sin, dies go into limbo. The doctrine of Predestination (No write, just popularize) - Kind of like fate - God has predestined some people to go into heaven or hell. - The idea that god has predestined every action of every human - No one has free will; free will is an illusion - Pessimistic view of humanity - God make me chase but not yet - Humans are not that great Defender of orthodoxy correct christian doctrine. The Middle Ages The End of Rome The Collapse of the Western Roman Empire - The shift East - Essentially ignores the western half - Causes plenty of internal divisions, resulting in internal tensions - Dynamic changes, so the empire moves to the east and they forget about the west. - - - Nothing is going on in the west. Western is forgotten Internal tensions, and east becomes opposed to the west. Greek Vs Latin problem, the language of the empire is starting to split. Religious differences - Orthodox vs Catholics - Orthodoxy Right - Left Catholicsy The Rise of the Goths - Comes in from Eastern part of the empire - Germanic peoples (German people) Modern day german - The perfect example of a barbarian group for Rome seen as barbaric - No major cities in the Gothic realm - No laws → perfect example of unlawful and barbaric - They are threated as second class citizens - Romans treated goths vry poorly, they didnt speak greek. - Don’t speak latin or greek - Incursion of the Huns - Huns – horse-borne nomads from the east who were skilled archers - Goths are pushed out by the Huns and go south to invade the Romans - 378 CE – Gothic Revolt - Goths defeated the Romans in Adrianople The Rise of Alaric - Gothic leader of Revolt - Granted Italy for him to ‘protect’; he was the protector of Italy - Given a military post by the emperor to avoid revolt - Sack of Rome in 410 CE - Huge moment, in roman history. Setting the scene for the collapse. Romulus Augustulus - The last Western Roman Emperor In the late 400s He was raised to the throne; but only reigns for a short period of time Deposed in 476 CE - The day the western roman empire collapsed. - By a mix of barbarians