More Christian Notes

More notes were taken today in Western Civilization, however these notes were more focused on the Fall of Rome. However, the notes could have been on what we discussed yesterday if the notes were literally taken. In any case, we took notes on the start of the end of the Roman Empire. Mr. Schick started off by listing some of the 99 problems that arose after and at the end of the Pax Romana. Some of these problems were that disease was spreading, it was difficult to defend the outer borders of the empire, and primarily there were just too many poor people. Then came Diocletian. Diocletian was Rome’s “knight in shining armor,” meaning he had some brilliant reforms in mind. Some of his reformations included increasing the army size by 33% and dividing up the empire into provinces to make ruling it more manageable. Also, under his rule, there were 20,000 officials working for the government (10*the amount there was under Augustus). We were also asked to find out what Diocletian did to the Christians and What Constantine’s connection was to Christianity. The answer to question 1 is that Diocletian made laws that banned Christianity. If you were found guilty of this crime, then your sentence was either imprisonment or execution. Question 2’s answer is that Constantine was the ruler that made Christianity legal due to his personal preference of the religion.