Classical Civilizations CCOT – sample
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Thesis
Change
Context
Baseline
Support
Support
Support
Reason
Change
Context
Baseline
Support
Support
Support
Reason
Analyze the cultural and political changes and continuities in ONE of the following civilizations
during the last centuries of the classical era: China, 100 CE to 600 CE; Roman, 100 CE to 600 CE;
Indian, 300 CE to 600 CE.
Between 100 CE and 600 CE, the Roman empire underwent a change in government as the empire
collapsed due to corruption within. Also, the influence of Christianity increased greatly. However, the
“Eastern Roman Empire”, the Byzantines, kept the culture going.
Clearly, the most important change that the Roman Empire experienced in the late classical era was its
collapse. But, this phenomenon was one that the other great powers of the age, Han China and
Gupta India, also grappled with as each saw their reign come to an end in the waning years of
the classical period. In the year 100 CE, the Mediterranean basin, and most of Europe, was in the
midst of the Pax Romana, a time of relative peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire. After 180 CE,
the Rome’s decline was visible as ineffective leadership and outside invasions end the empire’s golden
age. Rome’s leadership increasingly suffered from confusion of leadership as succession problems and
intervention by army in political affairs destabilized the government. This lack of strong leadership
quickened Rome’s collapse as many other mounting factors limited its ability to prosper, but without
effective leadership, they could not be clearly addressed. As the size of the Roman Empire and its
institutions grew, taxes levied on the peasants grew more burdensome and crushed the lower classes.
Free peasants often fled these financial hardships by selling their land and becoming enserfed tenants
of the land. With cumbersome and chaotic leadership limiting the economic effectiveness of the realm,
tax revenues declined and brought additional strain to the Roman Empire. Germanic soldiers were
increasingly used to guard the frontiers of the empire. This expense and the migration pattern that this
influx created was the final blow to the empire in decline. Germanic peoples helped spread plagues
leading to population decreases, and some Germanic groups seized on the opportunity to attack Rome.
Finally, in 476, Rome was sacked, and the Roman Empire was ended. This spiraling decline and fall
of the Roman Empire was likely the result of it expanding its territory too widely thus creating
financial burden and elevating the power of the army as “king-maker” over weakening imperial
leadership.
Another important change to the Roman Empire during the late classical period was the growing
influence of Christianity. The spreading popularity of religion in the Roman Empire was a trend
matched by the spread of Buddhism in China during the decline of the Han dynasty. In 100 CE,
the vast majority of Romans still subscribed to the polytheistic mythology that they adapted earlier from
the Greeks, despite being years after the death of Jesus. Facing frequent persecution, Christianity
attracted many poor Romans because of its emphasis on leading a simple life and the equality of
believers. These teachings garnered the faith a small but important group of practitioners that gradually
expanded as conditions in the empire deteriorated. Unable to quash the start-up religion, finally in the
4th century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Now with official favor, Christianity spread
more easily. Representing perhaps ten percent of the population prior to Constantine’s conversion,
Christianity grew in popularity, and Christian symbols and hierarchy were increasingly used by state
officials. After the fall of Rome, the organization of the Christian church, which mirrored the imperial
government, often provided stability for people in a time of political chaos. This organization and
stability provided yet another means for Christianity to earn converts. Christianity’s growing
importance in the Mediterranean basin and Europe is likely the result of the emotional
connection that the religion provided in the face of political turmoil that the sterile Roman
mythology was not able to offer.
Continuity
Context
Baseline
Support
Support
Support
Reason
To the east of Rome, the empire survived and continued, in the form of the Byzantines, uninterrupted for
nearly a thousand years after Rome’s fall. Although the Gupta empire declined, Indian culture
continued largely unchanged despite political transitions, much the Byzantines. At the beginning
of the period, Rome was a land ruled by an emperor with a strong legal tradition and commercial
economy, and the Byzantines shared many of the characteristics with its Roman predecessor. In the 6th
century, Emperor Justinian led a number of conquests in an attempt to capture the former lands of the
united Roman Empire. This quest to recapture the lands is a testament to the continuity that existed
between Byzantine’s and the former Roman Empire. Additionally, Justinian codified and simplified many
former Roman legal codes in order to aid in the administration of the government. Not only did the
Eastern Roman Empire continue the legal traditions of Rome, but economically, the Eastern Roman
Empire (Byzantium) remained a commercial center as it dominated much of the silk and spice trade in
the Mediterranean Sea much like its predecessor brokered the exchange of goods between Asia and
Europe or between regions around the Mediterranean. The Byzantine’s represent one of the clearest
continuations of classical traditions in the later postclassical era as a Roman emperor sat on a throne in
the eastern capitol of Constantinople. Because civilization was more deeply entrenched in the
eastern Mediterranean and the East faced less pressure from invasion, Constantinople was
never sacked and the Eastern Roman Empire was never conquered.
Although the Roman Empire seemed to face many dramatic changes in the fall of Rome and influx of
Christianity, the stability of the Eastern Roman Empire carried the mantle of Roman traditions
throughout the period.