Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Food and dining in the Roman Empire wikipedia , lookup
Roman economy wikipedia , lookup
Education in ancient Rome wikipedia , lookup
Roman agriculture wikipedia , lookup
Early Roman army wikipedia , lookup
History of the Roman Constitution wikipedia , lookup
Roman historiography wikipedia , lookup
During the first century, a new religion took hold in Rome. It was called Christianity. The followers of Christianity were called Christians. Christians believed in one god. They refused to worship the Roman gods. In ancient Rome, that was against the law. Christians were hunted as criminals. Persecution of the followers of Christianity took place publicly, often as entertainment. Forty years after the death of the Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, the new emperor Nero came to the throne at the age of sixteen. He was a wildly extravagant leader, taxing the people heavily to support his personal projects. He was also a wicked man. In the year 64 A.D. a terrible fire raged for days in the slum districts of Rome, killing thousands of people and leaving thousands more homeless. Nero is thought to have started the fire as a sinister way to rid Rome of both the slums and their occupants. However Nero used the young community of Christians as his scapegoats, saying that they had started the tragic fire. He ordered many of these Christians to be massacred in the Colosseum and elsewhere. The official Roman dislike of Christianity was surprising, for the Romans were usually quick to adopt the gods of other faiths into their own religion. Early on, the Christians were allowed to practice their religion in private as long as they worshiped the Roman gods in public. The Romans declared their emperors to be gods, beginning with Augustus Caesar. Eventually, the Christians refused to take part in the worship of emperors and were as a result, disliked by the Roman State! Christians were also seen as enemies because of their actions to encourage people to join their religion. Despite the persecutions, particularly under the emperors Nero and Diocletian, the number of Christians increased. In 313 A.D., the emperor Constantine granted the Christians freedom of religion. This does not mean that Rome finally had religious freedom. It meant only that it was now legal to worship Roman gods or to be Christian. Every other religion was still illegal. The lack of religious freedom in ancient Rome contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/religion/religion04.htm Name Date Examine Source A. How did historians know that the owner of the house was a Christian? _______ _________________________________________ Source A _________________________________________ The very wealthy owner of the villa at Hilton St _________________________________________ Mary in Dorset was a Christian. The mosaic in the main room in his house had this picture of _________________________________________ the head of Christ as well as the Chi-Rho symbol. Chi and Rhoare the first two letters of the name _________________________________________ Christ in the Greek alphabet. X- Chi. P- Rho. Source B “Their executions became sporting entertainment… they were covered in wild animal skins and torn apart by dogs” Tacitus. A Roman historian Examine Sources B and C. Would these be considered primary or secondary sources? Explain your answer for each. _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ Source C: A modern day painting _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________