Christianity And The Fall Of The Western Roman Empire

In my Theatre of History class, we briefly discussed Rome and the fall of the Western Roman Empire as it related to theatre but I was intrigued to learn more. It didn’t seem sensible that the fall of the Western Empire would be placed, even a little, on the rise of Christianity during that time. It didn’t seem sensible for two reasons. The first reason is that Jesus Christ, in whom the Christians believed, had been born, lived, and crucified over 400 years before the Empire fell. His lifetime spanned only until the second emperor of the Roman Empire, before Rome’s crooked ways became noticeable and uncontrollable. The second reason is because the Western Roman Empire that fell was officially, as declared by an emperor, a Christian Rome. In this paper I will present and argue the many contributing factors of Rome’s demise, and answer the question was Christianity responsible for the decline of theatre as a practice in the Western Roman Empire and ultimatel y its fall? The question of whether or not Christianity was responsible for the fall of the Western Roman Empire is one that has been argued by scholars for centuries. The most famous of these scholars, 18th century English historian Edward Gibbon, placed the blame ultimately on a loss of civic virtue among the Roman citizens. Gibbon, who notoriously openly criticized organized religion , held that Christianity contributed to this shift by making the populace less interested in the worldly here-and-now and moreShow MoreRelatedJustinian And The Byzantine Empire1568 Words   |  7 PagesByzantine Empire. Although it is currently referred to as the Byzantine Empire, many citizens and leaders, including Justinian, considered themselves to be Roman and part of the Roman Empire. This mentality led to the revival of the Roman Empire in Byzantine and in its capital, Constantinople. 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