Byzantine Iconoclasm

Rome. A name that has had many reactions throughout history. Once it was a name that was feared by the barbaric civilizations, also known as the heart of the empire at the time and whose collapse caused the Dark Ages (Medieval Age). Now the capital of the once great empire is a tourist attraction that has many great building such as the Colosseum. These two versions of Rome has many similarities and differences, some of which are obvious and others not so obvious. Rome, 476 AD. The fall of…

There are various versions of Christianity due to the different beliefs and views that people had, which in turn created the different branches within the religion. One example of this is the Great Schism. The Great Schism was the split between the Eastern and Western Christianity. This occurred after the centuries of progressive separation in which the two traditions developed their own distinctive forms. When it came to their differences, they ranged from minor to more contrasting…

Constantine the Great (I) was an Emperor of the Roman Empire from 306-324 A.D. and The Emperor of the Roman Empire from 324 until his death in 337. One of the few Roman Emperors to be considered great, Constantine reigned during a period of great upheaval in the Empire, but still managed to enact reforms and stabilize the state, thus on these bases, he was an exemplary ruler. Constantine came to power first as the Caesar of the Western Empire in 305 A.D. when his father Constantius was raised to…

Some of the lasting effects of the Crusades on modern history are expanded contact with the outside world, increased hatred between Muslims and Christians, and increased voyages of discovery and adventure. The Crusades expanded contact with the outside world. Western Europeans received many goods and ideas that they have never met. They brought a lot of them back with them into Europe, leading to the renaissance, the age of exploration, and the enlightenment. This increased trade and exploration…

The Battle of Qadisiyya, also referred to as the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah was fought in 637 C.E. near Al-Hirah, in modern Iraq, between the invading Arab army and the Sasanid Persian forces of the region. Strategically the Battle of Qadisiyya was a decisive five day engagement between expansionist Arabs and crumbling Persian control over the region. The defeat of the Persians contextualized within the wider Arab conquests of the early seventh century ultimately led to the rise of Islamic rule…

Europe was a time of struggle and death. It left Europe divided, uneducated, and ignorant. With the raids from the Vikings, Magyars, Muslims, and the Black Death tore Europe apart making it a place of filth, savagery, and death. During the early 400s to around the 800s Europe was divided after the fall of the Roman Empire. After the attempt by Charlemagne of the Franks in the late 700s, to reunite Europe and become a second Rome, many cities were then abandoned and people fled to the…

Invasion by Barbarian Tribes The most straightfoward reason would be military losses against outside forces. Barbian groups had reached beyond the Empire’s borders. In 410, the Visigoth King Alaric took all the wealth from Rome. The Empire spent the next decades under constant threat. It was raided again in 455 and in 476, the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed the emperor. No Roman emperor would ever rule from…

THE FIRST CRUSADE The First Crusade was called in November 1095 by Pope Urban II at the town of Clermont in central France. The pope made a proposal: 'Whoever for devotion alone, but not to gain honor or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance.' This appeal was the combination of a number of contemporary trends along with the inspiration of Urban himself, who added particular innovations to the mix. For several decades Christians had…

Despite the efforts of the Roman officials to balance out power, the Roman Republic fell due to continuous revolts. Citizens did not agree with the government placement of authority because they felt that the Patricians had more say than the Plebeians. Corrupt Roman officials were a big contribution as to why this was occurring. People such as Crassus and Caesar were causing the decline of the great Roman Republic. Citizens and public officials disagreed where the power in the government should…

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire Many factors contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but the four major reasons included opinionated politics, economic conditions, life taking diseases, as well as invasions by foreign groups determined to take over Rome. The fact that Rome did not respond to these issues had a colossal impact in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Politics were one of the reasons responsible for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Rome was run by many…