Page 176 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

and his death in captivity, an event unprecedented in Roman history. Germanic tribes also poured into the empire. The Goths overran the Balkans and moved into Greece and Asia Minor, while the Franks advanced into Gaul and Spain. Not until the reign of Aurelian (aw- REEL-yun) (270–275) were most of the boundaries restored. Although he abandoned the Danubian prov- ince of Dacia, Aurelian reconquered Gaul and reestab- lished order in the East and along the Danube. Grateful citizens hailed him as “restorer of the world.”
As civil wars and invasions wore down the central government, provinces began to break away from the empire. A military commander named Postumus seized control of Gaul and then gained the support of Britain and Spain. He defended his “Gallic empire” until he was killed by his own soldiers in 269. In the East, Zenobia (zuh-NOH-bee-uh), the wife of the ruler of Syria, seized power after his death and then in 270 extended her control over Egypt and much of Asia Minor. In 272, Emperor Aurelian ended this threat to imperial power by defeating Zenobia and her forces in Syria.
Economic and Social Crises
Invasions, civil wars, and a recurrence of the plague came close to causing an economic collapse of the Roman Empire in the third century. The population declined drastically, possibly by as much as one-third. There was a noticeable decline in trade and small industry, and the labor shortage created by the plague affected both military recruiting and the economy. Farm production deteriorated as fields were ravaged by Germanic tribes and even more often by the defending Roman armies. Provincial governors seemed powerless to stop these depredations, and some even joined in the extortion. The monetary system began to show signs of collapse as a result of debased coinage and the beginnings of serious inflation.
Armies were needed more than ever, but financial strains made it difficult to enlist and pay the necessary soldiers. Short of cash, the imperial government paid its soldiers with produce, causing bitter resentment. Whereas in the second century the Roman army had been recruited among the inhabitants of frontier prov- inces, by the mid-third century the state had to rely on hiring barbarians to fight under Roman commanders. These soldiers had no understanding of Roman tradi- tions and no real attachment to either the empire or the emperors. By the end of the third century, a new political structure would emerge (see Chapter 7).
138 Chapter 6 The Roman Empire
Transformation of the Roman World: The Rise of Christianity
Q FOCUS QUESTION: What characteristics of Christianity enabled it to grow and ultimately to triumph?
The advent of Christianity marks a fundamental break with the dominant values of the Greco-Roman world. Christian views of God, human beings, and the world were quite different from those of the Greeks and Romans. Nevertheless, to understand the rise of Christi- anity, we must first examine both the religious environ- ment of the Roman world and the Jewish background from which Christianity emerged.
The Religious World of the Roman
Empire
Augustus had taken a number of steps to revive the Roman state religion, which had declined during the turmoil of the late republic. The official state religion focused on the worship of a pantheon of gods and god- desses. Observance of proper ritual by state priests the- oretically established the proper relationship between Romans and the gods and guaranteed security, peace, and prosperity. The polytheistic Romans, who were extremely tolerant of other religions, allowed the wor- ship of native gods and goddesses throughout their provinces and even adopted some of the local gods. In addition, the imperial cult of Rome and Augustus was developed to bolster support for the emperors. After Augustus, deceased emperors deified by the Roman senate were included in the official imperial cult.
The desire for a more emotional spiritual experience led many people to the mystery religions of the Hellen- istic East, which flooded into the Western Roman world during the early empire. The mystery religions offered secret teachings that promised their followers advantages unavailable through Roman religion: entry into a higher world of reality and the promise of a future life superior to the present one. They also fea- tured elaborate rituals with deep emotional appeal. By participating in their ceremonies and performing their rites, an adherent could achieve communion with spir- itual beings and undergo purification that opened the door to life after death.
Perhaps the most important mystery cult was Mithraism. Mithra was the chief agent of Ahuramazda, the supreme god of light in Persian Zoroastrianism
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