Exam 5: The Roman Empire

In 311,Galerius issued the Edict of Toleration,permitting Christian worship.He was perhaps influenced by ________.

After the Praetorian Guard killed the emperor and installed a frightened Claudius on the throne,it was clear that the ultimate arbiter of leadership in imperial Rome was ________.

Constantine's father was a ________ under Diocletian.

Although he was arguably reflecting the society around him,________ was exiled for writing that was considered out of step with Augustan ideals of morality.

The Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius was seen by Dio Cassius as a decline from "a kingdom of gold into one of iron and rust." Do you agree with Cassius's metaphor? What were the major difficulties following the last of the "good emperors"? Were the problems caused by internal or external forces?

Constantinople was easily defensible,because of its location ________.

________,the great eighteenth-century scholar of Roman history,suggested that instead of asking why Rome fell,"we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long."

Although Augustus granted himself the powers of an absolute ruler,he did not proclaim this ascension openly.In what ways did he retain the appearance of republican government? Why?

The Circus Maximus's racing companies called factiones and gambling were all elements of one of the Romans' favorite entertainments,________ racing.

Adherents to the imperial cult worshipped the emperor more as a(an)________ than as a religious act.

Diocletian emphasized the divine nature of the imperial office,requiring citizens to worship the same.This caused conflict and led to ________.

Augustus introduced laws intended to proscribe moral behavior.What sort of behavior was codified,and who do you think would have suffered the most prosecution from these laws?

With a soaring population and limited land,many of Rome's underclass lived in cramped insulae,or _______ buildings.

When the bishop of Milan excommunicated emperor Theodosius I for ordering a massacre,the emperor ________.

Less than a hundred years after the crucifixion,membership in the Christian community was ________.

Constantine moved his court to Constantinople (modern Istanbul).What were the consequences of removing the Roman Emperor from Rome itself? Can you defend the move? Why or why not?

After Rome's destruction of Jerusalem,Christians congregated in ________.

Diocletian and Decius attacked Christians for what reason?

According to Tacitus,why did Nero,in 64 c.e. ,kill a number of Christians in particularly horrific ways?

One telling change in the literature of the Silver Age came in response to an increasingly irritable imperial rule.What was it?