Curses

During the start of the 1^st Century A.D., there were Romans who had very unique ideas about how religion worked. They believed that people could pray to their gods, to improve their own lives, and to ruin others. Many people would wonder why others would want to cause others harm.

In recent years, archeologists have discovered several tablets where ancient Roman civilization used to dwell. Some of the tablets are made of lead, and others are made from pewter, with inscriptions carved into them, asking for a god to grant the writer's the suffering of another individual. These tablets, are called “defixiones,” or, “curse tablets.” A few hundred have been excavated in Britain alone, and approximately ninety have been dug up in the historic town of Aquae Sulis.

The procedure of creating a curse tablet could follow a couple of methods. The first step, was to identify the intended recipient of the tablet-maker's wrath, and then inscribe it on the tablet. If the owner did not know the name of the victim, than they'd write an inventory of potential names instead. The next step was to explain the crime committed against the tablet's creator. Finally, they would identify the deity they wanted to do the act, and provide a description of how to go about the punishment, which would usually be very detailed, and very gory. Upon completion, the tablet would be rolled up, and either attached to a tomb, or dropped down a well.

Sometimes the tablet might have been more elaborate than just mere words. Some people had an idea that if written backwards, the words of the curse would have greater effects. Another idea for augmenting the potency of the tablet involved nonsensical words that did not exist. These included, “bazarga; bescue; berebescue; phrix; phrox;” and even, “abracadabra.” Some even included illustrations depicting demons or other mythological figures. In today's society, there would be many people who would disagree with this belief, given that it shows such malice towards others.

It is fascinating that the Romans, “... tended to see their gods as possible allies in the struggles of life.” (Cambridge, Page 42). However, there are some people who would disagree with the way the Romans applied the boon of divine alliance to the expense of another person, there are others who would promote the belief of a higher power looking out for individuals happiness and well-being.

Bibliography:

Cambridge Latin III

Persecution of Christianity

Persecution of Christianity

The Roman Empire is remembered today for its awesome power and many innovations, but one aspect of their remembrance has become a prominent discussion in our day and age, the prosecutions of Christianity. To an extent, Romans were understanding in others’ religions and cults. One of the major parameters they did set was that these groups had to pray to their gods. After Jerusalem was captured, Jews were treated harshly by the Romans, in part by their unwillingness to recognize Roman gods and the emperor as holy. There was tension on both sides but over time and integration between Jews and Romans, Jews were allowed to practice their religion without objection. Romans understood they were passionate about their belief in a singular god and could see the reasoning behind not preying to anyone else. However when Christianity came along, the Romans did not want to make another exception for a similar religion. After all, the Old testament for Christianity is the Torah for Judaism. In 64 C.E., Emperor Nero engineered the first attack on Christianity. He blamed the Great Fire, which some had thought he ordered, on those of Christian faith. During specific negative events or times of crisis, persecutions took place to take out the Romans’ anger and to use as a distraction. It was common for emperors to order persecutions to take the focuses off their negativity. These persecutions were accomplished in different ways. One of the most common methods was burning Christians alive, but there were other methods like putting Christians in a beast-fighting ring or feeding them to dogs. Throughout the first, second, and third centuries, persecutions severely depended on how the local governments approached Christianity. Often times persecuting Christians just became scapegoating for another issue. The fact that they were Christan were attacked making other important issues in less significant. On a broad point, Christians were prosecuted to discourage further conversions and bring people back to the belief in the Roman gods. This is how the last persecution of Christianity began. Galerius, the ruler of one of the four Roman provinces, convinced another named Diocletain to start persecuting in order to restore the purity in Roman religion that was severed by the introduction of Christianity. From the year 303 to 313, Christians had to swear an oath to the Roman gods and make an offering to them or die. During this time, churches were burnt, Christians were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in one of the largest persecutions in Roman history. The persecutions of Christianity have extreme importance for they led, in part, to the rise of the Christianly. Although Christianity had already gained a following prior to the persecutions, the persecutions drew attention to the cause. If someone demands someone can not do something, the instinct reaction is to do exactly that. The Roman persecutions of Christianity had an drastic influence in the world we see today.

Works Cited

Websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/christianityromanempire_article_01.shtml

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/hispania/diocletian.html

https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Persecution_of_Christians.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode3/documents/documents_9.html

http://www.fourthcentury.com/notwppages/persecution-timeline.htm ( Supported by History Department of Wisconsin Lutheran College and by Asia Lutheran Seminary)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164042/Diocletian/1832/Persecution-of-Christians

Books:

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_1/tacitus.html

Cult of Mithras

Zachary Emil

Ms. Hatmaker

Latin III/Period 7

5/21/2014

Cult of Mithras

The Cult of Mithras, otherwise known as Mithraism or the Sun religion, was a religion that most originated from Persian Zoroastrianism, but officially recognized as a cult by the Roman Empire. They worshiped Mithra, a god commonly associated with light or the sun, and a hero of lightness over darkness. Mithraism is often referred to as a "mystery cult," secrecy played a large role in the religion. No written texts from Mithraism exist, and rituals were practiced in temples, known as Mithraeum, disguised to look like natural caves. What is known of the mythology is from paintings and reliefs in these temples; two of the most common depict Mithras sacrificing a sacred bull, and Mithras being born from a rock. Sol, the personified god of the sun, is often depicted alongside Mithras. Those who joined Mithraism had to sacrifice a bull, and were baptized in its blood. There was also a class system: Corax, Nymphus, Miles, Leo, Perses, Heliodromus, and Pater. Those who gained the title of Pater, or father, were allowed to be head of the congregation. It was very popular among Roman soldiers, most likely because of Mithras reputation of a warrior for good, as well as those who weren't citizens of Rome, such as merchants. However, women could not join. Mithraism began to grow in power and in followers; at one point, there were several Roman senators were suspected to be part of the Cult of Mithras. Its eventual downfall is commonly attributed to the spread of Christianity after it was named the Roman Empires official religion by Constantine, as well as the fact that it restricted its followers more.

Bibliography:

http://www.mithraeum.eu/

A history of the Roman People, edited by Allen ward and fritz heichelheim and Cedric Yeo

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/

http://eawc.evansville.edu/

The Battle of Milvian Bridge

During the fourth century Christianity was spreading across Rome, and it would eventually become the main religion of the empire. This might not have happened however if it wasn't for the emperor Constantine and The Battle of Milvian Bridge. This famous battle was fought between two men who both wanted to become the next emperor. They were Constantine and Maxentius. This war had started when the precious emperor, named Diocletian, had abdicated. Maxentius had previously won two battles in Italy and had occupied the city of Rome; while Constantine’s army waited outside. Rather than be sieged Maxentius went out to fight. The battle took place in front of a bridge over the Tiber called the Milvian Bridge. The two events that make this battle so important are first that Constantine won and became emperor, and second the vision that Constantine had just before the battle. Lactantius, one of Constantin’s advisers, wrote that the night before the battle Constantine had a dream where he was told to paint the sign of the cross on to his soldier’s shields. Constantine then saw the sign of the cross in the sky, and he had visions of Jesus. Constantine’s subsequent victory converted him, and later the rest of Rome, to Christianity. Later Constantine would pass the Edict of Milan and make Christianity the official religion of the empire. The roman adoption of Christianity has greatly changed the world. All of Europe would eventually change from Pagan to Christianity. If Constantine hadn't had those visions, and if he hadn't won the battle, world history would be very different. 

Sources: 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/hypatia.htm
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/hypatia.html

http://hypatia.ucsd.edu/~kl/hypatia.html

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Hypatia.html
www.wikipedia.org

and the pictures: 

Adina Samuels 
Mrs. Hatmaker 
Latin 3, 6^th
2.03.2011

In Ancient Rome, there was a lot of turmoil between Greek pagans and Christians and in the rest of the empire. Once Christianity was finally in charge of Rome, the Christians started persecution, which had at one time been delivered to them. A few notable incidents of persecution delivered by Christians are the execution of Hypatia, Roman Emperors in forcing laws against Roman Paganism, and the results following the Edict of Thessalonica.
Hypatia was a Greek woman who lived in Roman Egypt between the years of 370 through 415. She was taught in the ways of speaking and holding an audience by her father Theon, in order to eventually gain an interest in math, science and astronomy. Through her research, she became a respected teacher and people came from great distances to hear her words. One night, Hypatia was walking in the streets of Alexandria, when a Christian mob killed her with pieces of pottery. After she was dead, her body was torn apart and burn. This was the first notable incident of Christian aggression to non believers. What may be a reason as to why Hypatia was executed, was because some of her teachings may have questioned the church's preaching. This is because pre modern Christianity believed in the earth being in the center of the universe, and in people living their life devoted to worshiping god. When a person like Hypatia tried to find out more about the world and the universe by studying mathematics, geometry, and astrology, they were considered to be questioning god's edict and must be stopped. Another reason why the Christian mob may have killed Hypatia was because they felt threatened that she was an educated woman, which back in antiquity was intimidating and “threatening”. Not only the Christian mob had to worry about a person who is able to question god's teachings; they were also concerned about her being a woman. These two reasons together, made the Christian mob feel it was necessary for them to put a stop to Hypatia teachings, which they viewed as sacrilegious.
The second way Christians persecuted pagans was by creating laws that forbade the sacrifice of Roman gods. The laws, created by Constantine's sons were enacted so people would start to convert to Christianity, which was the state religion. The main reason the emperors wanted the people to convert to Christianity was so they could consolidate power and keep their leadership. An emperor would not be well advised to say their title is a God given right, when the people do not believe in the god in question. To fix this, the emperors started taking away people's right to sacrifice to their god. In some religions it would not be a catastrophe if people weren’t allowed to sacrifice to their deities, however, the Roman religion was based on sacrifice. This meant the implications of people not allowing sacrifice to their gods were enormous. This resulted in many people heading to the Christian Church, which gave the Emperors what they wanted.
The last act of persecution of pagans by Christians came down to the Edict of Thessalonica, which professed Nicene Christianity was the only one tolerated by the Empire. The edict came after the laws against sacrificing to Roman gods were revoked. But in 380 the Emperors decreed everyone must follow the Christian faith, or to be persecuted. After the edicts were issued, Constantinople was completely closed off to Pagan worship. Not only Pagan's were kicked out of cites and their temples were confiscated, but they also lost their right to spread their beliefs or to congregate. These laws effectively whipped out wide spread belief of Roman Paganism throughout the empire.
To conclude, the Christians that controlled the Empire in it's later years, were almost as much against Roman Paganism as the Romans were against them in the previous centuries. There is a lesson to learn from the Romans about Christianity and religious tolerance.

Constanines Conversion

Noah Blough

Mrs. Hattmaker

Latin 3, Period 6

2/4/2011

Constantine's Conversion

In the early years of Christianity, there were many ways a man of power might be converted. Some include promises to the Christian god to convert is they save a life or converting because missions convinced the leaders that their ways were blasphemous. However one of the most usual way of conversion was a battlefield conversion. The most significantly important battlefield conversion was that of Constantine, who then started to convert the Roman Empire.

The battle was fought between Constantine and Maxentian over who would take up the crown because Diocletian died without any clear successor. The battle was fought at Mirvian Brige because Maxentian choose to face Constantine at the bridge, instead of having to withstand a lengthy siege in Rome. On the 27^th of October, before the battle was fought, Constantine was about to face Maxentian's force of 120,00, men when Constantine only had 100,000 men. Though his chances seemed some what grim Constantine prayed for a miracle and got one.

The night before the battle, Constantine was convinced he needed other worldly help to bring down the tyrant, whose army waited on the other side of the bridge. He was sure that his rival had deployed use of several magical enchantments to defeat him. He could gone with the Old Roman gods such as Zesus and Mars to grant him victory, however it was remember that in recent year calls to the Roman gods have been unheard and sacrifices never received. Constantine needed a new god. He decided to honor the one god of the universe, feeling it would only be by divine intervention that he would win the trial of arms and not by his soldiers lives. After seeing a vision of a cross with the words “you shall conquer underneath”, Constantine went to bed. In a dream he saw god and god said to him he should tell his soldiers to paint their shields with the Chi-Rho and if they do so, they will win the battle. The next morning, Constantine awoke and found a spear; he ordered the spear to be covered with gold and jewels, then he added a cross bar, which made the sign of the cross. Then god appeared to him again and told him that Jesus was his real incarnation and that Constantine should worship Jesus and him to be victorious this day. After this last vision, the horns of battle roared and hours later, Constantine stood as the conquering hero and Emperor of Rome.

Constantine's conversion was tremendously important to world's future. Without Constantine's conversion then there would not have been monks to convert Clovis or the Saxons. Constantine was also very lenient towards other religions unlike his successors, who persecuted Roman Paganism to the point where it was reminiscent of the persecution of the Christians.

                                                                                Sources 

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conv-const.html 

Battle by R G Grant