changes and continuities from 100 CE to 600 CE

From 100 CE to 600 CE, the Roman Empire experienced many changes, both politically through power of leaders, and culturally religion. Rome also had some continuity, like the fact that it remained an empire through all of the 500 years mentioned. Although it stayed somewhat the same, its changes far outnumbered its continuities. Cultural changes in Rome were mostly due to the rise of Christianity during this period. Toward the beginning of the era (circa 100 CE), many pagan religions were very prevalent, and practiced widely; at the end of this period (600 CE), most of those religions were barely practiced at all, because Christianity was the main religion, after Constantine legalized it in 312 CE. Another cultural change was the complete disappearance of two classes of Roman people: the equestrian class, and patricians, patricians becoming a title instead of a social class. A cultural continuity was that latin was still the most spoken language in Rome in this period. The reason for this is because most of the Christian churches documents, and teachings were done in Latin, and to stray from that would mean having to convert all of the documents to another language. This is why when the language did eventually change toward the turning of the millennia, only the higher class (those who still spoke latin) were able to go to sermons, and hear teachings. Political changes were dominated by the changes in location of important cities, and the powers of leaders. The Emperor in this period, started out as to be the protector of Rome, not acting like a dictator, but rather a guide. The senate was put in place, and used to make most executive decisions. This changed, however, when emperor Diocletian took the throne. He took on the title “dominus et dues”, translating from latin to: lord and god. He started the transition from a republic, to the absolute monarchy that would soon come to be. During the 6th century, the senate lost all of its power. During Emperor Justinian’s rule, the emperor was to be thought of as above the law, and made all of the decisions for the country, by himself. Another change, was that of the moving of important cities. During these 500 years, the city of Rome lost most of its importance. During Constantine’s rule, he moved the capital of the empire of Rome to the more eastern location of Constantinople. The reason for this change was that the city of Rome was too far away from the empire of Rome’s borders. The emperor wanted to be closer to the border, so that he could know better about foreign affairs. Most of the political aspects of Rome changed over these 500 years. The only continuity for the politics of Rome over these 500 years, is that there were emperors who ruled for all 500 years mentioned, and that Rome stayed an empire, even its borders changed.