Rise Of The Roman Empire Essay

Though power throughout the Roman empire was not challenged by the citizens quite as much as outside of the empire; there was a solid assertion of power administered and flaunted by the

Emperors and rulers. Prior to the Fall of the Roman Empire you could see the struggle in a way that was similar to the Patria Potestas, where the power was held by the fathers of the family.

This translated over to when Roman leaders such as Diocletian escalated this to not only being the father of the empire, but now like a divine father of the empire. When the emperors began to claim they were almost that of demi gods, it put them on a similar level of the gods that were worshipped. In the Roman society, it showed they are to be respected and made their power legitimate. But as time moved on, more citizens became Christians which deescalated that divine power of the emperor, and with the Fall of the Roman empire there began to be more of a legitimacy to the Emperors. One prime example was Theodoric the King of the Ostrogoths who essentially won

But before that spread could be considered successful, you saw persecution on a massive scale, this had been going on throughout the gradual rise of Christianity, and one example was Perpetua in 203AC. For over 150 years in the Roman Empire there was persecution for Christians as they were seen as more of a cult than a religion itself. Just ramblings about drinking the blood of Christ and eating his body led to rumors that were enough to cause worry to the point persecution began. This was the case with Perpetua where she and her collegues were taken to the coliseum and put out with gladiators and wild animals. But why would this seemingly diverse society allow this, well the answer maybe lies with the power struggle of the