Rome thrived with its arts and literature, government, and science. So how exactly did Rome fall? Most importantly, did it truly fall? Many historians believe that Rome did fall, while other historians believe that Western Rome was the only location that fell. Rome did fall because of Christianity, due to money going towards the church instead of the military, lack of support from Christian people toward the military, and because of how the new religion arose.
Originally, Rome had an excellent military, with their legionnaires and great training, conquering lands left and right. They made all men serve in the army, and had a system of organization within their troops. However, they started to struggle with recruiting men to the army. So they started recruiting people from other places, which lead to a lack of loyalty for their country. Amongst the lack of loyalty, Christian beliefs stated that war and fighting were looked down upon. So many people disagreed on having wars and were not supporting the army. Furthermore, the army started having trouble with having enough resources. They were running out of money because the money was primarily used to build churches, or help support the churches instead. This made
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During 64 CE, under the domination of emperor Nero, Christianity was banned in Rome. It was usually people in poverty who believed in Christianity. Unfortunately, being Christian was punishable, and were often persecuted and killed, with cruel punishments, such as getting dipped in hot oil, get mauled by animals, and making human torches out of them. Later in 312 CE, emperor Constantine came into position and was much tolerant of Christianity. He had remorse for Christianity, and he contributed and collaborated with Christian priest to try to influence Rome. Constantine believed that his success in life was because of Christianity, and that he’d only be more successful if he continued with his Christian beliefs. So he then later made Christianity tolerable in Rome. This was called the Edict of Milan.
This transition, however, was quite difficult, as it challenged the polytheistic Roman traditions. One of which was seeing their emperor as a god, which included respecting the emperor, or the citizens should provide for their country. This wasn’t a belief of Christianity, where they believed that there was one god. Many priests and churches tried to also take part in politics, which made people quite upset. This made Constantine look very weak. It wasn’t much help when he also decided to split the Roman empire into two in 330 CE. Selfishly, he named the eastern side of Rome Constantinople. Later, in 380 CE, the Edict of Thessalonica was established by the emperor Theodosius. It made Christianity the official religion of Rome.
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