Greek Period and Roman Period

In the history of the Mediterranean, in effect in the history of the Western World, there are two major ancient historical periods: the Greek Period and the Roman Period. One may look at the heritage of both civilizations as an East/West tradition; the Greek civilization influenced the eastern Mediterranean, and the Roman the western region.

The western debt to Rome is immense. Although not as spiritual as the Greek world, Rome founded a worldpolicy, gave its citizens the Pax Romana as a symbol of universal peace, bequeathed a vast administrative and bureaucratic tradition, the tradition of Roman law and the Latin language, and left all its rich literature. Finally, it must be remembered that the later Roman Empire bridged the gap between the ancient and modern world with the Roman Church and all its traditions. The famous scholar Macaulay put it this way, "The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian Amphitheatre" (Osborn 14).

Rome has fascinated scholars for centuries. Even today, scholars debate the causes for Rome's rise and fall, and the masterful multivolume work by Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, continues to be a popular book for both the scholar and lay reader. In order to effectively evaluate

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early fifth centuries were facilitated by the internal decline of the government. The date of A.D. 476 is often taken as the mark of the end of the Roman Empire in the west. It was during this year that the German mercenary leader Odacer deposed the Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial paraphernalia to Constantinople (Randers-Pehrson 196). In order to evaluate the decline of the Roman Empire, it is useful to look at the details of the series of crises that existed in the Roman world from the third century to its fall. In the political, social and economic spheres one can easily see the seeds of decline. Politically, the empire was deteriorating because of the greed which existed in the upper echelons of government, particularly with the later emperors. Socially, the strains of an empire under siege brought about renewed conflict between the classes, undermining whatever stability existed previously. In the economic realm, the Empire was faced with crisis after crisis and reacted with a series of seemingly brutal measures that only intensified the crisis (Vogt 11-26). In the intellectual life of the Empire, for example in education, literature, philosophy, and religion, the crisis of the Roman Empire is

Category: History - G