Notes on chapter 6

Notes on chapter 6(9/25/01)

Zealots: folks that are deeply religious or religious revolutionaries
Judea- a Jewish empire under the Roman Empire, hated the Romans. Although they weren’t strong enough to revolt.
Jesus was Jewish, the 1^st Christians were Jewish
Zealots are waiting for a messiah
The Zealots wanted Jesus to lead a revolution over the Roman Soldiers. He said he was the Son of God and wasn’t a military leader. Jesus lost support.
Any scholar would say that Christianity has impacted western culture.
Jesus preaches new concepts.
When Jesus dies, the movement exploded. His followers were crucified. They believed it was real. Therefore this mass spreading of ideology was spread.
The Roman Empire tortured the Christians, and it was a polytheistic religion.
The catacombs are where the Christians buried their dead.
80 years later Christianity is the official religion

Republic to Empire- Rome gets way to big

The empire has challenges ahead
They fail, and the cultures they conquer don’t care about Roman culture. The Romans let them use their own culture.
The Romans have control off many countries.
Epicurous- believes that you get one life and there is no after life, therefore you can go have as much pleasure as you can. (Epicureanism)
The Romans loose focus, the organization declines
31 BC- Octavian Augustus is the powerful leader of Rome. He starts what will be the Pax Romana. After this 200 years of peace, good times, they forget about what helped them get there. The culture and the country erode and fall apart.