Innovations in Religious Practices in the Roman Empire (Research Paper Sample)

INNOVATIONS IN RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Name:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:

Introduction
Constantine and Augustus are both very important figures not only to the history of the Roman Empire but also to our modern cultures. They were both part of numerous innovations to religious practices in the Roman Empire in the early days. They portrayed vivid visions and substantial strength of character during their reign. For this reason, these two emperors were the only ones in the history of Roman Empire to serve for lengthy terms. Something similar about them is the fact that the two embraced different types of religions in the Roman Empire, which would later transpire to the immense effects to the Roman Society in general and form a key source of religious backgrounds of Christianity and Judaism and not forgetting the western culture.
History of religion in the Ancient Roman Empire
Roman Empire is one of the most popular and most remembered empires in the history of the world for its extensive social and political structures. Its history of existence can be traced back to Augustus Caesar who was the first leader to become an emperor in Rome at around 31BCE and its history can be retrieved from around 476 CE where at this time there were two segments of the Roman Empire; eastern and the western empires under different emperors. The western empire ended with its last emperor Romulus Augustulus having been removed from office by the reign of kings and the eastern empire collapsed following the death of Constantine IX and the empire fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. During the era of the Roman Empire, approximately forty emperors ruled in this particular empire but of all the forty only two made remarkable contributions to the religious history of the world hence remembered for these great contributions.
Emperorship in Roman Empire was hereditary. It would pass on to the heir or the next of kin. The heirs would be determined by birth or adoption. A senate would delegate powers to the emperor. According to different researchers, the emperors who were granted the power by the senate adopted the term Augustus for he was the first of the governors to be granted powers by the senate following the downfall of Julio Caesar who was the first governor. Some researchers do disapprove the fact that Julio Caesar was the first emperor. This is due to the fact that the senate never awarded him the term but instead gave him the title of ‘a Roman Dictator’ for his supremacy in military and political prowess and power. The Roman Empire by then was only ruled by emperors who came from two royal families; hence, the reign was named the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. This name was adopted from the two family names where the respective emperors descended from. A number of emperors from Julio-Claudian Dynasty took to power after Augustus but none of these heirs was comparable to him in terms of achievement since they all succumbed to poor visions and lack of strength in character and the technical knowhow to lead.
Augustus ascended to power after the death of Julio Caesar and as the next heir. He was a cousin to Julio Caesar. At the time of his rise in power, Rome was just a city of clay. He embarked on numerous projects that would eventually transform Rome into a city of Marble at the time of his death. The senate granted him the emperor of Roman Empire following his efforts to destroy the enemies bringing in much needed stability to the people of the Roman Empire for sound economic activities. He brought a lot of change to Rome as a city through initiation of vast building projects, extending and guarding the territories and boundaries to Rome city from its enemies as well as changing the laws of the town. Eventually, non-Roman groups would find their way to the empire following the stability though some archeologists and scientists believe that the non-Roman groups migrated to the empire following the good climatic conditions that were being experienced in the empire at this time. The climatic conditions were not only fit for farming but also fit for living. The non- Roman group would not only bring with them their material property but also their religious cultures.
Religious pluralism would eventually become the order of the day in the Roman Empire due to the fact that during the reign of Augustus, he grabbed more land and more people who would automatically become a part of the Roman Empire. These victories brought in a number of gods to the city and as Stark stipulates, this was to the expense of the public since the senate never built any temples before the reign of Augustus to cater for this and instead the rich and the poor would group themselves together to raise money to build a church or even a shrine to cater for their religious needs . It later transformed most of the citizens here into priesthood since a priest at this time was a title that was viewed as very important to any person and that such a person was respected even though at this time such individuals lacked any religious duties and even authority to be a priest. During the time of Augustus, religious duties and authority was only delegated to a limited number of priests who served as the advisors to the senate of Roman Empire and who had undertaken divination. Emperor Augustus also built the first pantheon that acted as a conservative place for the increasingly adopted religions in Roman Empire.
Following the different eras of mixed religions, Roman Empire would later on be transformed into a single religion state. A Christian Empire after Emperor Constantine ascended to power. Emperor Constantine was born in 272 AD and his father Constantius Chlorus was by then an officer of Roman Empire who controlled its activities in Zenobia and Gallic Empires, which were constituent empires of the Roman Empire. As a young boy, he received his formal education at the court of Diocletian at Nicomedia. Later on, his father would leave his mother and marry a daughter of the reigning Augustus of the East Empire of Roman Empire to earn more space in his government and cement their relationship. At the time of retirement, both the emperors of the East and of the West recommended that there was to be an end to Tetrarchs following the fact that there was to be no more naming of emperor’s sons as the potential heirs of the emperorship. This eventually angered Constantine who thought he should succeed his father as the emperor. Despite this setback in his dreams, he left to join his father in the West. After some time, the father fell ill and died and following his popularity to the soldiers for his bravery, they declared him the next Augustus of the West Roman Empire.
Constantine in his reign is stipulated as a Christian who really believed in God. He was a true believer to the extent that just before the battle of Milvian Bridge, which would later proclaim him the overall emperor of East and West Empires, he believed to have seen a sign of his success from God. His soldiers fought this battle under a new sign, which meant in Christ’s name. He also claimed to have received his visions from God in his dreams. He eventually won the battle and even though the other soldiers had outnumbered his army, he believed in his victory and encouraged them to fight hard. This forced the other soldiers to flee, eventually capturing Rome. As indicated by Lenski, Constantine ruled more than any other emperor of the Roman Empire second from Augustus. When he was declared the emperor of Roman Empire, Rome city had grown a substantial percentage of both Christians and Judaism. This had resulted from the influx of Greek gods, Egypt gods and others from the near East in to the Roman Empire.
Augustus innovations in religious practices in the Roman Empire
Augustus ruled in the Roman Empire as from 31 BCE to 14 CE. He was the fore founder of Rome City and even history articulates him as the first emperor of the Roman Empire. The innovations he made for the city and to religious practices are unforgettable. When Augustus became the emperor of the Roman Empire, he embarked on different projects to alleviate the image of the city as well as raising the socio-economic status of the different communities in the Roman Empire bearing in mind that at this time very little was in existence in terms of the facilities, technology and even the technical knowhow. Together with his compatriot general Agrippa, Augustus turned Roman Empire into one of the greatest in history as at that time of the century.
Augustus is remembered as a key contributor and inventor of religious practices since he was the first emperor to build the first pantheon. This place acted as a temple to all gods of ancient Roman Empire. Different people during this period of the century would use this facility to serve their religious activity. He as well changed the laws of the town in favor of diversified religious activities. It was the right of every person to serve the god who he or she believed in without torture or discrimination by the law. This resulted in high growth of religious activities in this empire and evolution of gods. Prior to the republican time, there were seven gods headed by Zeus. This eventually grew to approximately sixteen during the era of Augustus. These gods were mainly imported from Greece and Egypt.
However, with the introduction of laws supporting the different religions and commencement of building of temples to serve the gods in different cities of the Roman Empire, this did not serve the need of a certain group of individuals. As stated by Stark, it just made some groups of people develop the urge to look for a more sophisticated religion to sustain their religious needs. To some point in the century, through the act of the senate a religion known as Cybele also referred to as Magna Mater (“great mother&rdqu...