Nightingale College Chapter 11 Nature of Religion and Roman Empire Discussion Include the following in this week’s initial discussion response:What was the

Nightingale College Chapter 11 Nature of Religion and Roman Empire Discussion Include the following in this week’s initial discussion response:What was the nature of religion during this time period? Why does Brooks (2019) refer to it as a “hotbed of religious diversity?”Compare and contrast the Roman Empire (Brooks Chapters 10 and 11) to the Roman Republic (Brooks Chapter 9). 4/10/2019
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 1 – Google Docs
Western Civilization: A Concise History Volume 1
Original Author: Dr. Christopher Brooks
Last updated: March 2019
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Open Educational Resource released under the Creative Commons
License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International)
Licensed by Portland Community College
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Table of Contents
Introduction
3
Chapter 1: The Origins of Civilization
15
Chapter 2: Mesopotamia
25
Chapter 3: Egypt
35
Chapter 4: The Bronze Age and the Iron Age
51
Chapter 5: The Archaic Age of Greece
74
Chapter 6: Persia and the Greek Wars
86
Chapter 7: The Classical Age of Greece
101
Chapter 8: The Hellenistic Era
120
Chapter 9: The Roman Republic
136
Chapter 10: The Roman Empire
165
Chapter 11: The Late Empire and Christianity
185
Chapter 12: The Fall of Rome
204
Chapter 13: Byzantium
211
Chapter 14: Islam and the Caliphates
229
Chapter 15: Early Medieval Europe
247
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The Idea of Western Civilization
Introduction
What is “Western Civilization”? Furthermore, who or what is part of it? Like all ideas,
the concept of Western Civilization itself has a history, one that coalesced in college textbooks
and curriculums for the first time in the United States in the 1920s. In many ways, the very idea
of Western Civilization is a “loaded” one, opposing one form or branch of civilization from others
as if they were distinct, even unrelated. Thus, before examining the events of Western
Civilization’s history, it is important to unpack the history of the concept itself.
Where is the West?
The obvious question is “west of what”? Likewise, where is “the east”? Terms used in
present-day geopolitics regularly make reference to an east and west, as in “Far East,” and
“Middle East,” as well as in “Western” ideas or attitudes. The obvious answer is that “the West”
has something to do with Europe. If the area including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Israel Palestine, and Egypt is somewhere called the “Middle” or “Near” East, doesn’t that imply that it
is just to the east of something else?
In fact, we get the original term from Greece. Greece is the center-point – to the east of
the Balkan Peninsula was east, to the west was west, and the Greeks were at the center of their
self-understood world. Likewise, the sea that both separated and united the Greeks and their
neighbors, including the Egyptians and the Persians, is still called the Mediterranean, which
means “sea in the middle of the earth” (albeit in Latin, not Greek – we get the word from a later
“Western” civilization, the Romans). The ancient civilizations clustered around the
Mediterranean treated it as the center of the world itself, their major trade route to one another
and a major source of their food as well.
To the Greeks, there were two kinds of people: Greeks and barbarians (the Greek word
is barbaros). Supposedly, the word barbarian came from Greeks mocking the sound of
non-Greek languages: “bar-bar-bar-bar.” The Greeks traded with all of their neighbors and
knew perfectly well that the Persians and the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, among others,
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were not their inferiors in learning, art, or political organization, but the fact remains that they
were not Greek, either. Thus, one of the core themes of Western Civilization is that right from its
inception, of the east being east of Greece and the west being west of Greece, and of the world
being divided between Greeks and barbarians, there was an idea of who is central and superior,
and who is out on the edges and inferior (or at least not part of the best version of culture).
In a sense, then, the Greeks invented the idea of west and east, but they did not extend
the idea to anyone but themselves, certainly including the “barbarians” who inhabited the rest of
Europe. Likewise, the Greeks did not invent “civilization” itself; they inherited things like
agriculture and writing from their neighbors. Neither was there ever a united Greek empire:
there was a great Greek civilization when Alexander the Great conquered what he thought was
most of the world, stretching from Greece itself through Egypt, the Middle East, as far as
western India, but it collapsed into feuding kingdoms after he died. Thus, while later cultures
came to look to the Greeks as their intellectual and cultural ancestors, the Greeks themselves
did not set out to found “Western Civilization” itself.
Mesopotamia
While many contemporary Western Civilization textbooks start with Greece, this one
does not. That is because civilization is not Greek in its origins. The most ancient human
civilizations arose in the Fertile Crescent, an area stretching from present-day Israel – Palestine
through southern Turkey and into Iraq. Closely related, and lying within the Fertile Crescent, is
the region of Mesopotamia, which is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
present-day Iraq. In these areas, people invented the most crucial technology necessary for the
development of civilization: agriculture. The Mesopotamians also invented other things that are
central to civilization, including:
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Cities: note that in English, the very word “civilization” is closely related to the word
“civic,” meaning “having to do with cities” as in “civic government” or “civic duty.” Cities
were essential to sophisticated human groups because they allowed specialization: you
could have some people concentrate all of their time and energy on tasks like art,
building, religious worship, or warfare, not just on farming.
Bureaucracy: while it seems like a prosaic subject, bureaucracy was and remains the
most effective way to organize large groups of people. Civilizations that developed large
and efficient bureaucracies grew larger and lasted longer than those that neglected
bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is, essentially, the substitution of rules in place of individual
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human decisions. That process, while often frustrating to individuals caught up in it,
does have the effect of creating a more efficient set of processes than can be achieved
through arbitrary decision-making. Historically, bureaucracy was one of the most
important “technologies” that early civilizations developed.
Large-scale warfare: even before large cities existed, the first towns were built with
fortifications to stave off attackers. It is very likely that the first kings were war leaders
allied with priests.
Mathematics: without math, there cannot be advanced engineering, and without
engineering, there cannot be irrigation, walls, or large buildings. The ancient
Mesopotamians were the first people in the world to develop advanced mathematics in
large part because they were also the most sophisticated engineers of the ancient world.
Astronomy: just as math is necessary for engineering, astronomy is necessary for a
sophisticated calendar. The ancient Mesopotamians began the process of
systematically recording the changing positions of the stars and other heavenly bodies
because they needed to be able to track when to plant crops, when to harvest, and when
religious rituals had to be carried out. Among other things, the Mesopotamians were the
first to discover the 365 (and a quarter) days of the year and set those days into a fixed
calendar.
Empires: an empire is a political unit comprising many different “peoples,” whether
“people” is defined linguistically, religiously, or ethnically. The Mesopotamians were the
first to conquer and rule over many different cities and “peoples” at once.
The Mesopotamians also created systems of writing, of organized religion, and of
literature, all of which would go on to have an enormous influence on world history, and in turn,
Western Civilization. Thus, in considering Western Civilization, it would be misleading to start
with the Greeks and skip places like Mesopotamia and, also, Egypt, because those areas were
the heartland of civilization in the whole western part of Eurasia.
Greece and Rome
Even if we do not start with the Greeks, we do need to acknowledge their importance.
Alexander the Great was one of the most famous and important military leaders in history, a
man who started conquering “the world” when he was eighteen years old. When he died his
empire fell apart, in part because he did not say which of his generals was to take over after his
death. Nevertheless, the empires he left behind were united in important ways, using Greek as
one of their languages, employing Greek architecture in their buildings, putting on plays in the
Greek style, and of course, trading with one another. This period in history was called the
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Hellenistic Age. The people who were part of that age were European, Middle Eastern, and
North African, people who worshiped both Greeks gods and the gods of their own regions,
spoke all kinds of different languages, and lived as part of a hybrid culture. Hellenistic
civilization demonstrates the fact that Western Civilization has always been a blend of different
peoples, not a single encompassing group or language or religion.
Perhaps the most important empire in the ancient history of Western Civilization was
ancient Rome. Over the course of roughly five centuries, the Romans expanded from the city of
Rome in the middle of the Italian peninsula to rule an empire that stretched from Britain to Spain
and from North Africa to Persia (present-day Iran). Through both incredible engineering, the
hard work of Roman citizens and Roman subjects, and the massive use of slave labor, they built
remarkable buildings and created infrastructure like roads and aqueducts that survive to the
present day.
The Romans are the ones who give us the idea of Western Civilization being something
ongoing – something that had started in the past and continued into the future. In the case of
the Romans, they (sometimes grudgingly) acknowledged Greece as a cultural model; Roman
architecture used Greek shapes and forms, the Roman gods were really just the Greek gods
given new names (Zeus became Jupiter, Hades became Pluto, etc.), and educated Romans
spoke and read Greek so that they could read the works of the great Greek poets, playwrights,
and philosophers. Thus, the Romans deliberately adopted an older set of ideas and considered
themselves part of an ongoing civilization that blended Greek and Roman values. Like the
Greeks before them, they also divided civilization itself in a stark binary: there was
Greco-Roman culture on the one hand and barbarism on the other, although they made a
reluctant exception for Persia at times.
The Romans were largely successful at assimilating the people they conquered. They
united their provinces with the Latin language, which is the ancestor of all of the major
languages spoken in Southern Europe today (French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, etc.), Roman
Law, which is the ancestor of most forms of law still in use today in Europe, and the Roman form
of government. Along with those factors, the Romans brought Greek and Roman science,
learning, and literature. In many ways, the Romans believed that they were bringing civilization
itself everywhere they went, and because they made the connection between Greek civilization
and their own, they played a significant role in inventing the idea of Western Civilization as
something that was ongoing.
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The Middle Ages and Christianity
Another factor in the development of the idea of Western Civilization came about after
Rome ceased to exist as a united empire, during the era known as the Middle Ages. The
Middle Ages were the period between the fall of Rome, which happened around 476 CE, and
the Renaissance, which started around 1300 CE. During the Middle Ages, another concept of
what lay at the heart of Western Civilization arose, especially among Europeans. It was not just
the connection to Roman and Greek accomplishments, but instead, to religion. The Roman
Empire had become Christian in the early fourth century CE when the emperor Constantine
converted to Christianity. Many Europeans in the Middle Ages came to believe that, despite the
fact that they spoke different languages and had different rulers, they were united as part of
“Christendom”: the kingdom of Christ and of Christians.
Christianity obviously played a hugely important role in the history of Western
Civilization. In inspired amazing art and music. It was at the heart of scholarship and learning
for centuries. It also justified the aggressive expansion of European kingdoms. Europeans truly
believed that members of other religions were infidels (meaning “those who are unfaithful,”
those who worshipped the correct God, but in the wrong way, including Jews and Muslims, but
also Christians who deviated from official orthodoxy) or pagans (those who worshipped false
gods) who should either convert or be exterminated. For instance, despite the fact that Muslims
and Jews worshiped the same God and shared much of the same sacred literature, medieval
Europeans had absolutely no qualms about invading Muslim lands and committing horrific
atrocities in the name of their religion. Likewise, medieval anti-Semitism (prejudice and hatred
directed against Jews) eventually drove many Jews from Europe itself to take shelter in the
kingdoms and empires of the Middle East and North Africa; historically it was much safer and
more comfortable for Jews in places like the predominantly Muslim Ottoman Empire than it was
in most of Christian Europe.
A major irony of the idea that Western Civilization is somehow inherently Christian is that
Islam is unquestionably just as “Western.” Islam’s point of origin, the Arabian Peninsula, is
geographically very close to that of both Judaism and Christianity. Its holy writings are also
closely aligned to Jewish and Christian values and thought. Perhaps most importantly, Islamic
kingdoms and empires were part of the networks of trade, scholarship, and exchange that linked
together the entire greater Mediterranean region. Thus, despite the fervor of European
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crusaders, it would be profoundly misleading to separate Islamic states and cultures from the
rest of Western Civilization.
The Renaissance and European Expansion
Perhaps the most crucial development in the idea of Western Civilization in the
pre-modern period was the Renaissance. The term “Middle Ages” was invented by thinkers
during the Renaissance, which started around 1300 CE. The great thinkers and artists of the
Renaissance claimed to be moving away from the ignorance and darkness of the Middle Ages –
which they also called the “dark ages” – and returning to the greatness of the Romans and
Greeks. People like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Christine de Pizan, and Petrarch proudly
connected their work to the work of the Romans and Greeks, claiming that there was an
unbroken chain of ideas, virtues, and accomplishments stretching all the way back thousands of
years to people like Alexander the Great, Plato, and Socrates.
During the Renaissance, educated people in Europe roughly two thousand years after
the life of the Greek philosopher Plato based their own philosophies and outlooks on Plato’s
philosophy, as well as that of other Greek thinkers. The beauty of Renaissance art is directly
connected to its inspiration in Roman and Greek art. The scientific discoveries of the
Renaissance were inspired by the same spirit of inquiry that Greek scientists and Roman
engineers had cultivated. Perhaps most importantly, Renaissance thinkers proudly linked
together their own era to that of the Greeks and Romans, thus strengthening the concept of
Western Civilization as an ongoing enterprise.
In the process of reviving the ideas of the Greeks and Romans, Renaissance thinkers
created a new program of education: “humanist” education. Celebrating the inherent goodness
and potentialities of humankind, humanistic education saw in the study of classical literature a
source of inspiration for not just knowledge, but of morality and virtue. Combining the practical
study of languages, history, mathematics, and rhetoric (among other subjects) with the
cultivation of an ethical code the humanistics traced back to the Greeks, humanistic education
ultimately created a curriculum meant to create well-rounded, virtuous individuals. That
program of education remained intact into the twentieth century, with study of the classics
remaining a hallmark of elite education until it began to be displaced by the more specialized
disciplinary studies of the modern university system that was born near the end of the
nineteenth century.
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It was not Renaissance ideas, however, that had the greatest impact on the globe at the
time. Instead, it was European soldiers, colonists, and most consequentially, diseases. The
first people from the Eastern Hemisphere since prehistory to travel to the Western Hemisphere
(and remain – an earlier Viking colony did not survive) were European explorers who, entirely by
accident, “discovered” the Americas at the end of the fifteenth century CE. It bears emphasis
that the “discovery” of the Americas is a misnomer: millions of people already lived there, as
their ancestors had for thousands of years, but geography had left them ill-prepared for the
arrival of the newcomers. With the European colonists came an onslaught of epidemics to
which the native peoples of the Americas had no resistance, and within a few generations the
immense majority – perhaps as many as 90% – of Native Americans perished as a result. The
subsequent conquest of the Americas by Europeans and their descendents was thus made
vastly easier. Europeans suddenly had access to an astonishing wealth of land and natural
resources, wealth that they extracted in large part by enslaving millions of Native Americans and
Africans.
Thanks largely to the European conquest of the Americas and the exploitation of its
resources and its people, Europe went from a region of little economic and …
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