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ROMAN CIVILIZATION
There is a myth that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, two
sons of Mars, the god of war. Before it, these both brothers were thrown
in river by their uncle but Shepherd saved them. The brothers later on,
defeated their uncle and made their own city on the bank of the river in
753 BC. This is actually the beginning of Roman Civilization. This beginning
is same as that of Greek Civilization i-e city states were established.
People were easily settled due to favorable climatic conditions and
fertility of the soil. After killing his brother, Romulus became the first
king of Rome, which is named for him. At that time the well-known
civilization was of Greeks.
Rome after its fine establishment went for various attempts to
expand its territory. The principle aim of Roman Emperors was to
strengthen their empire as much as possible. They wanted to rule the
world. In 4th century, Rome captured southern zone. It was the mid of the
3rd century when Rome conquered Italian Peninsula. Now the next target
was to capture Carthage; a very strong city state in North-African
region. To achieve the target, Romans went for three war attempts
during 264 BC to 146 BC. These wars are known as Punic Wars. In the
Third Punic War (149146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the
city of Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a
section of northern Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome also
spread its influence in east, defeating King Philip V of Macedonia in the
Macedonian Wars and turning his kingdom into another Roman province.
Rome emerged as a very strong empire in a very short time interval.
In the beginning, the governmental setup of Roman Empire was of
Kingship. During 753-510 BC, the Emperor was the supreme authority in
the empire. Two Magistrates and 300-Senators were working to look after
the state affairs. Magistrates also served as commanders in chief of
army. Magistrates were selected by free-men while the senators were
selected by Emperor. They all were obedient to Emperor and had dummy
role in government.

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Later on, during 510-46 BC, the power was shifted to Republicans
(Res-Publica; things that belong to public). Kings and all other monarchy
were overthrown; all powers were transferred to free-men. They
introduced new government system. This system also had a senate but now
the senate was headed by a council of two members. New posts of
Questers (financial officers) and censors were introduced. Censors job
was to conduct elections. The council used to choose censors after every
18 months. In this system, all these council members, senators and
questers were selected by free-men.
In 46 BC, the government was headed by Julius Ceaser. He went for
many expansions and became the strongest person of his time. Republicans
turned to Emperors due to his policies. He increased the number of
senators from 300 to 900 and also the Questers number was increased
from 2 to 8. The senators chose him Dictator for one year. In the very
next year 45 BC, Ceaser dismissed the working council and elected himself
as council for lifetime with the help of senators. He now became the King.
In 44 BC, he was killed. After this murder, the power was shifted to his
son Octavian (44-27 BC). Octavian throughout his reign kept fighting
against the murderers of Ceaser and at last in 27 BC, he defeated them.
As an honor, he was given the title of Augustus and was made king for
his lifetime.
From 27 BC, the decline of Roman Civilization began. In 3rd AD, Rome
entered into period of extreme decline. There was no one to look after the
eastern and western part, these parts were growing apart from empire
and were confronted by many problems. The Western Rome was weakening
socially and economically day by day. As a result, the Barbarians in 476 AD
attacked and conquered most of the provinces of it. The same was the
situation in Eastern part; Army was dominated by the Barbarians here
also.
Romans were very conscious about their cultural, traditional and
religious values. Wherever they went they worked in architectural
development. They never created any disturbance in the conquered areas.
They were Pagans i-e worshiped more than one god. They changed the
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names of gods. The King god Zeus was changed to Jupiter and Queen
Goddess Hera was changed to Juno. Romans were inspired from Persian
Civilization and used to worship their kings; they called king as the shadow
of God.

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ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY AND ROLE OF CHURCH DURING DARK AGES
Jesus Christ was born in 1st AD century. As he started spreading
Christianity, the people rejected with some allegations. People alleged him
of spreading Judaism, so they handed him over to Judas. Judas after
having conversation with Christ came to know that he is talking something
different. Christ said that he is talking about the Supreme Being. Judas
called him in court and the court then alleged him of talking against
government policy. Court decided to crucify Christ and he was crucified at
the age of 33. This incident was the beginning of Apostolic Period.
Apostles were the direct followers of the Jesus Christ. It is believed
in Christianity that Christ after his death came on earth to guide his
followers i-e Apostles. They were spiritually guided by the Christ. Apostles
called the spiritual waves as the blood of the Christ, and due to this logic
people were more attracted towards the Christ even after his death.
Later on, the Post Apostolic Period began that enlarged for about 100
years. During this period, official persecution of Christianity began.
Christianity was regarded as the most persecuted religion of the state.
Mithras Isis also condemned Christianity.
312 AD proved as the most successful year of advent of Christianity
in Roman Empire. In this year, the Roman Emperor Constantine accepted
Christianity. After this all the Bishops and Churchmen were changed.
Constantine founded the base of expansionist policy. He expanded his
Kingdom from east to west. After six year, in 330 AD, Constantinople was
constructed in Eastern front of Roman Empire. The newly build city was
made the capital of Rome after Theodosia. In 394 AD, he banned over the
promotion of all religions except Christianity. Christianity was made the
official religion of the state in 395 AD. The Emperor was working to make
his empire a Holy Roman Empire. His all focus was on this agenda and there
was no one to look after the Eastern and Western front of the state.
Barbarians invaded many provinces of the Rome and the Roman declination
began. But Christianity was saved by Bishops to get their personal
benefits. This was the beginning of the Dark Ages of the Church.

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The period from 395-600 AD is known as the dark age of the church.
In the era the Bishops presented a fake document Donation of
Constantine which carried a letter. That letter was said to be issued by
Constantine in which he has asked to give all religious and political powers
to the church. As a result the Bishops started enjoying the powers in
every field i-e Political-Economical-Religious and many more. Bishops
created many new posts in the church like Arch-bishops, Cardinals, Monks
and Nuns etc. Manipulation of the church was at its peak. Anybody
talking anything against this system was given harsh punishment. The
courts of that time were known as Ecclesiastical Courts. These courts
were headed by churchmen. All the judicial hearings and law making
process was also in their control. They had made many laws to facilitate
themselves.
Ex-communication
Anybody speaking against Christianity or Church or disobeyed
the rules was first ex-communicated from religion and was declared
to be killed by any individual.
Tithe
It is a name of a tax that was due for every earning person.
According to it, every earning person will give 10% of his salary to
the church. Churchmen were free of it. Bishops were given free
hand to use it as they were not answerable to anyone.
Indulgence
It was the name of a letter. According to this every accused
person was asked to pay specific amount to the church.
Interdict
A tool used by churchmen to save themselves from religious
duties. The churchmen were not baptizing the children, were not
performing their church duties and were also not taking part in
marriages.
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Charlemagne was the strongest person of the time. He conquered

many empires including France. At that time people thought that he
might finish up this manipulation of religion but all their hopes
destroyed when Charlemagne asked the Pope to put the crown on his
head in 768 AD during the coronation ceremony. Then the people
realized that he is also having Popes support.

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GREEK CIVILIZATION
Greek civilization is the greatest civilization of the ancient times.
This civilization has a unique beginning from city states. Many of the
ancient civilization grew up near water (river) because of the fertile land
and fine climatic conditions. Same was the case with Greek people; they
established small towns near different rivers. These towns were later on
converted into cities. About 150 city states were established that time.
Only five are known to us i-e Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes and Argos.
All the city states were collectively called Polis. These city states were
very far from each other, but even though they had resemblance in many
fields of life i-e religion, tradition, culture and language. The only
difference was found in social and political hierarchies of the states. In
order to understand these differences we need to study two major city
states i-e Athens and Sparta.
Athens is one of the most important city states of Greek
Civilization. Being the state of very intellectual people, this was also
known as the state of nobles. People were free to think as compared to
Sparta, but they were not liberal enough as modern age. The
governmental system settled in Athens from the start till 500 BC was
Dictatorship but due to some problems it was overthrown by Nobles.
Democracy was introduced that was working under the control of Nobles.
There existed an assembly of 50 council members and 5 judges. All the
council members and judges were elected by freemen. Council members and
judges used to meet 40 times in a year to discuss the issues of the state.
The council was bound to work within its limits; it was not allowed to
increase its power. The council was answerable to freemen but the
judiciary was not. In the society, there existed four classes of people i-e
Freemen, Women, Merchants and Slaves, these all were given importance
respectively. Freemen were most important. Women were not given equal
rights. They were neither allowed to be a part of the assembly nor could
they cost the vote. They were treated as slaves of their husbands.
Foreigners usually came for trade and later on settled there. Slaves were
well treated in Athens. They could restart their lives as they were given
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an opportunity to become good person.
Sparta is another important city state of Greek Civilization. This
state was having Dictatorship as their governmental system. On the top,
there were two Kings of the state. Both the Kings were given equal
powers. They also had a so called assembly that consisted of 28 council
members and 5 judges. Like Athens, council members and judges were
elected by freemen but here they were finally appointed by Kings. Kings
were enjoying real power. Assembly was working as a puppet. Assembly
was answerable to Kings. Due to the kingship system, the society was very
harsh. People were not free to think neither they could discuss the state
issues. The main objective of anyone was to dedicate his life to army.
People were only concerned to warfare. Slaves were treated badly. They
were not allowed to marry. They were not given any opportunity to be
good citizens.
The religion in all the city states of Greece was same. The people
were strong followers of Paganism; follower of many gods. They didnt
believe in Supreme authority. They had different gods for different
purposes.

Zues King god

Hera Queen goddess

Poseidon Sea god

Appolo Sun god

Artenis Moon goddess

Greeks are known as the pioneers of Olympics games. These games

are called Olympics because in start these were celebrated at a mountain
known as Olympia. This mountain is in Athens; Greek city state. Greeks
thought that the King god Zues is present at that mountain, that is why
they used to go there and conducted a festival to pay tribute to their god.
This continued till the Greek Civilization was at its peak. But when the
civilization began to decline, they stopped to arrange the festival. Later

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on, in 1896, these games were restarted by France.
490 BC is the year when a series of war between Greek and Persians
began. The very first war was in 490 BC and is known as the Battle of
Marathon. Persians had attacked the Athens and the battle was fought in
Marathon; a place name. People of Athens were afraid because Persians
were much stronger than them. Phillip ides; an Athens ran 20km towards
Sparta but they refused to help them. Athens left the state and ran away.
But when the battle was won by Athens, Phillip ides ran for 42km to tell
the Athens that they have won but he was died on the way. He could not
tell them. Later on two other battles were also fought.
Thermopylae was fought in 480 BC. In this battle Sparta had helped Athens
and collectively, they had won it.
Salamis was fought in 480 BC. This was also won by Greeks.
In 338 BC King of Macedonia Phillip-II achieved a historical
importance in the Greek Civilization. The King snubbed all the rebellious
armies and became the King of Greece. Phillip was killed in 336 BC. After
him, his son Alexander became the King of Greece at the age of 18 only. He
conquered many areas. In 334 BC, he crossed the Asia Minor, defeated the
Persian and conquered Syria and Egypt. In 325 BC, his troops demanded
return but Alexander died at the age of 33. The two great Kings of Greece
father and son both died. The impact of Greece also died with their death.
After both of them, there was nobody to look after the state. So the
great civilization came to its decline.

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