Author: OwenPitts

   There are five main reasons why Rome collapsed. The first reason why Rome fell is because the empire was divided. Rome became so big that one ruler could not control all of Rome at once, so Rome was divided into two empires, the Western Emire and the Eastern Empire. They were supposed to fight together against invaders, but instead, they fought against each other, which made each empire weaken. This made it easier for invaders to conquer them.

   The second reason is lack of military cohesion. After Rome goes to fight against barbarians, the army brings barbarians back with them to fight with the Roman army. However, since Rome sometimes fights against other barbarians, the barbarians that are in Rome’s army feel like they’re fighting against family. So, they refused to fight with Rome, which over time, made Rome weak.

   The third reason is economic struggles. Rome’s military was greatly weakened because the barbarians refused to fight with them. This meant that Rome was not strong enough to build new colonies. Without new colonies to give Rome the goods it needs to survive, Rome became very weak.

   The fourth is political rivalries and turmoil. There were fighting and strife among the men who wanted to be the next emperor. Men were probably telling lies about other people to make themselves seem like the better choice for emperor. People just did not know whom they should trust, so they had a hard time voting on who should be the next emperor.

   The final reason is moral decline. The public welfare system began as a good thing because it was helping people in need but eventually turned into a bad thing. People were abusing the system and were basically stealing from the government, who was basically stealing from tax paying citizens. People also had a wrong mindset, they just wanted to be entertained. They would stay up all night at parties and sleep all day rather than going to work. They did not take life seriously. They just wanted to enjoy life. These are the five main reasons why Rome collapsed.

   Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Ambrose were some of teh early church fathers. First, I will be talking about Ignatius. Ignatius was converted to Christ when he was very young. Also, John the apostle was his teacher! Ignatius was a bishop in the church in Antioch. A bishop is someone who serves in a church and makes sure that the pastor, the elders, and the deacons are all doing their jobs correctly. Ignatius also helped in creating the church doctrine.

   Next is Irenaeus. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna. Smyrna is located in modern-day Turkey. Ancient Smyrna could be found north of Ephesus, on the Aegean Sea. He was the first early church father to be born into a Christian family. When he got older, he became a bishop and a pastor in Lyons. Irenaeus preached against two heresies. These heresies were Gnosticism and Montanism. Gnosticism taught that the world was made by an imperfect spirit. It even teaches that Jesus was fully man but not fully God and focused on getting lots of things. Montanism was created by Montanus, a priest. He prophesied contrary to the Bible, saying that the Holy Spirit controlled him.

   And last but not least, Ambrose. Ambrose was a faithful bishop in Milan for a long time. He assisted in creating the doctrine of the early church. He did this by his study and writing. When Ambrose was a child, bees swarmed around his head so later on, people used bees and honey symbolically to represent Ambrose. When he was older, he tried to avoid accepting being the new bishop of Milan. After he accepted being the new bishop, he gave up everything he had and started to study Scripture. I love the early church fathers. These three were my favorite, but Ambrose is my favorite out of all of them.

Constantine really had a different name which was actually his real name. This name was Flavius Valerius Constantius. He was born circa 280 on February 27. Constantine’s father was a Roman military general before he became a junior emperor for the emperor or the West because an earlier Roman emperor divided the empire into the west and east empire and each emperor had to have a junior emperor. Constantine’s father retired from the throne so Galerius took over the throne. One day, Constantine found out that living with Galerius was not a safe place to live, so he fled to Britain where his father was.

   After Constantine’s father died, he remained in Britain for a time until Romans begged him to come back to Rome to take back his place as emperor. Constantine agreed, but first, he had to defeat the false emperor, so he took his army he had with him to defeat the false emperor’s army. He succeeded in this battle.

   One night before a battle, he had a vision where he had a shield with a painted cross on it and he won the battle because of it. He realized that he should do what the vision is telling him, so he did that. After winning, Constantine even became a Believer! He even made a law called the Edict of Milan that says that no Believers are allowed to be persecuted. This law lasted for a long time.

   Constantine died in 337 A.D. He was a great Roman emperor. I can not believe that he even became a believer! Constantine is my favorite Roman emperor.

   Farms during the Republic were very small. There were bees and they were used for honey. Sheep and they were used for wool and milk. pigs were used for meat. Cattle were used for meat, milk, and farm animals. Olive trees were used for olive oil, a very important oil.

   The farms were cared for by the people who owned the land, but there was a problem. The landowners of the farms sometimes had to serve as soldiers for the army. Because of this, the landowners could not get enough money to pay the government, so the government chose to take away the land from the landowners.

   During the Empire, the farmers went through a big change. Because there was no money t keep good farms running, many farms fell apart. Crops did not get planted. There was no food for the animals, so they were not healthy enough to make babies. The wealthy Romans bought the farms and made it a healthy farm again. They also had slaves and poor citizens to help them.

   Most Roman homes did not have kitchens because the cooking fires would get too smoky because they had no chimneys. They usually got their warm, cooked food from people who cooked on the streets who are called “street vendors.” Because of free food and free games that emperors give out at feasts, citizens loved the free food and free games so much that all they wanted was free food and free games. I bet my dad would love to farm there.

   A normal Roman family consisted of a mom, a dad, sons and daughters, grown-up sons and their wives, and slaves. When the father was in charge, the family was called a paterfamilias. The father could be kind and loving or mean and evil. The father was fully in charge of the household.

   Pompeii was an ancient city built by the Oscans. In 80 B.C. the Romans took over Pompeii so it became a Roman city. Rich Romans could travel to Pompeii for a relaxing vacation. The city offered activities. It had an amphitheater, gymnasium, and bathhouses. People lived very poorly there.

   The ancient city of Pompeii is located near modern-day Naples, Italy. Pompeii is about five miles away from Mount Vesuvius. Even though the mountain had erupted before, the Romans ignored it and continued to go to Pompeii. They loved the warm, sunny, weather!

   In 79 A.D., the mountain erupted again! Ashes and rocks shot out so high into the air that even people hundreds of miles away witnessed the event. The lava was so hot that it killed anything within six miles of it. The ashes even clogged the air to make it difficult to breathe. Once the ashes cleared, Pompeii was completely destroyed. At least 2,000 people were killed in this catastrophe.

   Pompeii was rediscovered by archeologists and became an archeological site. They found lots of artifacts and well-preserved bodies. They preserved the bodies by pouring plaster or resin in the cavities.

   Archeologists found many artifacts and made a lot of discoveries about the Roman culture.

   After Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit into each of his disciples making them each apostle. Apostle means “one who is sent out”. The job of each apostle is found in the Great Commision, which we find in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

   Here were some of the early apostles, Simon Peter, James, John, Philip, and Paul. Each of these men went to different corners of the world to preach the gospel. Some were even martyred because of their faith in Jesus. James was beheaded by Herod (not the Herod that tried to kill Jesus), but John was not martyred. He lived many years and died of old age. He also wrote many books of the Bible.

   Here is an interesting story about an apostle. One of the interesting things about him is that he did not start out as an apostle. Instead, he persecuted apostles. His name was Saul, but one day he met the Lord, repented of his sin, and became known as Paul, one of the greatest apostles in history.

   Because of men like Paul and the apostles, the gospel spread to all the corners of the world. Each man went to a different city and preached the gospel there. Some people believed the gospel and others rejected it, but Christianity still spread. Even though some died preaching the gospel, Christianity never stopped. I am a Christian because of these men.

   An angel, named Gabriel, came to visit a young Jewish girl named Mary. Gabriel told Mary that she will have a Baby and she will call his name Jesus, but she was not married. Instead, she was engaged to a man named Joseph. She rejoiced that the Messiah would come through her. Throughout the Bible, many prophecies were told of Jesus’ coming to earth. One was that he would be born in Bethlehem.

   After a census was called, Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem because Joseph was a descendant of David, and David’s hometown was Bethlehem. Once they got there, there was no place for them to stay so they had to sleep in a stable and on that very night, Jesus was born.

   Out in the fields, shepherds were watching over their flock when all of a sudden, an angel appeared and told them that Jesus was born. After the angel left they wanted to see Jesus, so they ran to see Jesus. After they saw Jesus, they went throughout the city proclaiming that Christ has been born.

   Wise men, who were astronomers from the East saw Jesus’ star and went to see Him. They met Herod, king of Judea and asked him where Jesus was born. After Herod heard this, he was furious and one of his men told him that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem and then Herod told the Wise men this. The Wise men finally got to Jesus a year after he was born and gave him kingly gifts. These were gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

   When the Wise men left, they did not go to Herod. Instead, they went home a different way. When Herod realized he had been deceived by the Wise men, he demanded that all male children under three were to be killed. Before this happened, an angel told Joseph in a dream to go to Egypt and Joseph obeyed. In Egypt, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus waited until Herod was dead to return and an angel told Joseph it was safe to return so Joseph and his family went to Nazareth where Jesus grew up as a humble carpenter. I think Jesus’ birth is amazing!

   Octavian was the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, the first emperor of Rome. After Julius Caesar’s death, Octavian returned to Rome to take revenge after his studying in Greece. He made a truce with Antony and Lepidus to become the Second Triumvirate to rule the people, but Octavian’s hidden goal was to become the sole ruler. Octavian forced Lepidus to retire and Antony was the only one left, he became ruler of Rome. As ruler he expanded Rome’s territory, he brought peace to Rome, and he refused to become dictator until his death, but instead, he became known as Emperor Caesar Augustus.

   Augustus ruled Rome for twenty-seven years. He organized the Praetorian guard who would become the body guard for the emperor, and he also set up governors over each of the provinces of Rome to make sure peace was maintained in the empire. The period of peace Augustus brought up was known as the Pax Romana. During the Pax Romana, he worked together with the Senate to improve Rome, and he reduced the size of the army to prevent a coup. He built lots of building and cared for the very poor people. Augustus called for a census of the entire Roman Empire which was the cause of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born.

   Augustus died in 14 A.D. and the Romans declared him a Roman god. Is it amazing that Augustus lived the same time Jesus was born?

   Carthage was founded by Dido in 814 B.C. Dido was a Phoenician princess. When Dido’s brother became king, she was afraid he was going to kill her, so she fled to found a new city. She named this city Carthage.

   Carthage was in North Africa. She talked the people of Africa into giving her as much land as a bull’s hide can take up. This seems really stupid, but she actually used her trickery in this request by slicing the bull’s hide into thin strips long enough to take up a huge tract of land to hound Carthage.

   Carthage followed in the pattern of Phoenicia civilization and Carthage also became a prosperous trading city. It traded three kinds of metals. These metals were tin, bronze, and silver.

   Carthage was very cool in its wars and trading center. I wonder what they traded at their trading center.