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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

VII. THE LATER EMPIRE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN WORLD, 180-395 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

The "Soldier Emperors," 180-284 A.D.   * The "Absolute Emperors," 284-395 A.D.   * Economic and Social Conditions in the Third and Fourth Centuries   * The Preparation for Christianity   * Rise and Spread of Christianity   * The Persecutions   * Triumph of Christianity   * Christian Influence on Society

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ECONOMIC RUIN

These two forces—the decline in population and the decline in wealth-- worked together to produce economic ruin. It is no wonder, therefore, that in province after province large tracts of land went out of cultivation, that the towns decayed, and that commerce and manufactures suffered an appalling decline. "Hard times" settled on the Roman world.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY

Doubtless still other forces were at work to weaken the state and make it incapable of further resistance to the barbarians. Among such forces we must reckon Christianity itself. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had become the religion of the empire. The new faith, as we shall soon see, helped, not to support, but rather to undermine, pagan society.

 

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy