Change in Europe: 200 to 800 AD This paper will d

In 200 AD, the Roman Empire had reached its zenith in terms of geographical area. In the south, Roman influence and control extended to the southern regions of what is now Algeria. In the east, the garrison town at Dura-Europos overlooked the Euphrates River. And in the north, the Roman army had established an outpost in Scotland. These outlying points marked the vague boundaries of the Empire, and the furthest reaches of Roman culture. Roman culture and society defined the world within these boundaries (Brown 11-12).

However, European society at this time did not resemble the modern world in structure. Instead, it resembled the structure of the ancient world, consisting of individual city-states and small villages which had to "forage" for their food. In particular, the Mediterranean region consisted of relatively isolated fertile plains and river valleys surrounded by mountains and hostile highlands. Each year at harvest time, city-dwellers would take everything they could from the rural farmers for the coming year. However, this was never enough to sustain most of the cities; therefore, they also depended upon trade for additional food. The Roman Empire depended upon grain shipments from Africa throughout m

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racy which was uniform in its culture and language. The members of this ruling class felt a kinship towards each other, but not towards the people they governed. The term "barbarian" had come to mean not only the primitive societies which loved on the other side of the frontier, but also the illiterate peasantry which lived within the boundaries of the Empire. The reason for this was that the peasantry in the outlying regions of the Empire did not share the culture of Rome or speak Latin or Greek. The educated administrators governed in Latin or Greek, obeying codes of behavior shared by other educated Roman aristocrats. However, they had to live in regions inhabited by people who spoke only Celtic, Punic, Libyan, Lycaonian, Phrygian, Cappadocian, Aramaic, or Syriac (Brown 15). Although the Roman administrators were tolerant of local cultures and religious practices, they excluded from their world anyone who did not conform to Roman culture. They dismissed anyone who could not conform as "barbarians;" they treated outsiders who chose not to participate, such as Jews, with varying degrees of contempt and hatred; they often summarily executed anyone who had conformed but then voluntarily dropped out, such as Christians (Brown
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1266
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)