Roman civilization, Christianity, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (Essay Sample)

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Midterm Essay
QUESTION 7
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are without doubt the greatest of all Greek philosophers. In reality, there are many things that connect these three philosophers, but there are also numerous things that set them apart. One of the things that link them was their views on ethics. The three philosophers believed that knowing what was right did not automatically mean that one would do the right thing. This means that what is right and wrong had to be taught to the subject. The three philosophers also made important contributions to science, even though their contributions were varied in their intensity. Another area where these three philosophers made important contributions was in the area of political theory. The philosophers believed that a perfect government could only be attained if there was a strong society. There are however numerous variations on the teachings of three philosophers. To begin with, Plato’s viewpoint was that concepts had a collective form which gave rise to idealistic beliefs. This is the same viewpoint that was held by Socrates, but it is not surprising considering that Plato was Socrate’s student. On his part, Aristotle’s view was that collective forms did not have to be linked to a definite object or concept. Aristotle also believed that each account of an entity or a theory had to be examined individually. It is this doctrine that gave birth to the Aristotelian Empiricism. Aristotle and Plato were of the same opinion that thoughts supersede senses. However, there was a variation to this believe as Plato believed that the sense could fool an individual while Aristotle was of the opinion that the senses were necessary for the determination of what was real.
Slaves were at the center of the political, cultural, and financial growth of both Sparta and Athens. The foundation of the Athenian government was agricultural production and international trade. The wealth created by these sectors of the economy led to the widespread transformation of the region in 400 BCE. Athens and Sparta used their great wealth to procure slaves who were usually captured from the numerous wars that Greece waged outside their country. These slaves became an integral part of the Greece community, especially in the manufacturing sector where they were used as laborers without any payment. The politics of the day were centered on the issue of slaves with one political clout being determined by the number of slaves that one had.
Although Athens was founded on democratic ideals, the tyrant Pisistratus, who ruled Athens at that time build a strong military power and used it aggressively against their neighbors. This was challenged by Persia, but they were defeated by Athens and Sparta. Immediately after the war, Greece felt that they had been short-changed as Athens failed to adhere to the pact that had been signed after the end of the war. This is what characterized the beginning of the end for the Athenian empire. The Peloponnesian League that was formed by Sparta to challenge Athens led to a war that marked the fall of Athens. This war had numerous negative effects for both Greece and the surrounding cities. The elongation of this war led to widespread poverty in the entire region. The long war also led to the weakening of all the Greece cities and left behind numerous casualties. Due to the divided loyalties between the various towns, civil war became a common occurrence even after the war came to a close.
QUESTION 8
The Early Republic’s way of governance is what led to the Ancient Roman Civilization. The Early Republic had an intricate form of governance that instead on the separation of powers. This form of governance also carried out various checks and balances that were crucial to the effective running of government. This Republic also had an effective constitution where everyone was allowed to participate in the nation building process, and this led to the rapid growth of the economy. The unity exhibited in the Republic saw its territory grow within two centuries to cover most of the eastern regions, as well as France and some parts of Africa. The Republic also had functional legal and legislative structures, some of which have been maintained up to the present day. These structures were the ingredients that were used to build the Roman Civilization that lasted for nearly five decades.
Civil strife and the nature of the constitution are some of the issues that led to the decline of the Principate in the dying years of the Roman Republic. While the emperor had immense power, there were structural flaws that gave the aristocratic an opportunity to exert great pressure on the emperor. The Roman constitution had given the aristocracy immense powers that made them a real threat to the throne. These aristocratic powers engineered numerous civil wars within the region in an attempt to destabilize the Principate. The influential relatives who had been in power before the Constitution were changed when the Early Republic teamed up with the aristocrats who were also clamoring for the throne. This left the Principate without any meaningful structural support, and the civil strife weakened his base further. The problems for the Principate were compounded by the Roman constitution that had created a set of constituencies in the entire region. While these constitutional constituencies made governance easy, they also portended serious challenges for the throne as the person who was considered to be ideal for the senate was in no way ideal for the people. In the end, the civil strife engineered by the aristocracy and the power vacuum create by the constitution led to the fall of the Principate and subsequently the end of the Roman civilization.
Although the Roman Civilization had numerous achievements, the most notable of them all was their enormous empire. This civilization lasted for more than a millennium, and if one considers the eastern Roman Empire, then the entire duration of this dynasty was more than two millenniums. Another notable achievement of this civilization was its army. Historians have indicated that the Roman army was perhaps the best in the entire world, and it was instrumental in the swift spread of the empire. The aristocracy was also instrumental in the founding of numerous cities all over Europe. The Romans are also famed as the civilization that had the most constructions in the history of man. Some of the roads that were built during this period have remained in use up to the modern day. This dynasty is also linked to the spread of Latin and the wide acceptance of Roman numerals used in everyday life. In all the regions that they conquered, the civilization ensured that the people learned Latin and their Roman alphabet was the only one allowed for use.
QUESTION 9
Christianity was founded on the precepts of the Jewish religion. According to theologians, Jesus Christ is considered to have been the founder of this new religion. Jesus was considered to be a prophet who was moving in Jewish towns teaching that he was the only son of God and his disciples ended up believing him. The teachings of Jesus were made during the reign of Governor Augustus, and the basis of his teaching was the purification of sin that would usher the kingdom of God to be established on the earth. Although it is not easy to tell whether Christianity was established by God as many people believe, the truth is that the message of this religion was based on cleansing the Jewish religion of the rigid rituals that they had carried for a long time. Jesus, the founder of Christianity had grown from a poor village, and this led this religion to be associated with the poor. The message propagated by this new religion seemed to be against the Roman rule, and this is what led to the arrest and subsequent killing of Jesus, who was considered to be the leader of this new religion.
Paul of Tarsus was a Jewish citizen who had been born in Tarsus or what is the modern day Turkey. During his early days, Paul was actively concerned in the persecution of the Christians, but upon his conversion in A.D. 35 he became instrumental in the propagation of the Christian faith. Despite having spent most of his time persecuting the Christians, the conversion of Paul turned up to be beneficial to the Christians. Although a Jewish citizen, Paul had been born and brought up in a Greek city and was, therefore, conversant with the Greco-Roman culture. This knowledge helped him to explain to the Roman citizens how Christianity was tied to their culture. Paul of Tarsus is credited with having created the Christian theology. This was the theology that led to the simplification of most of Jesus teachings, which were considered un-understandable to most people. Paul also came up with a series of new principles that Jesus had not taught during his time. Paul’s insistence that Christianity was a universal faith and his use of the Greek language in passing this message gave the faith a new impetus and led to its transformation.
Despite the continual persecution by the Roman government, Christianity continued to thrive in the entire region. One of the reasons for the phenomenal growth of the Christian faith was having zealous teachers who traversed the entire region teaching about the new religion. Apart from this, the continual persecution of the Christians by the Romans turned out to be instr...