This period is characterized by a deep crisis of culture and society of the ancient type, covering all spheres of life - from religious to political. Attempts to get out of it are being made by many emperors of the Roman Empire, who transform the system of government and make Christianity the state religion, but all this only delays the fall of the ancient world for some time. The onslaught of barbarian tribes on the borders of the empire intensified every decade, until in the 5th century AD. The “Great Migration,” which destroyed the Western Roman Empire, does not begin.

The Eastern Empire, increasingly called Byzantium, survived. On the territory of the former Western Roman Empire, several barbarian kingdoms were formed, in which a new socio-economic structure was emerging - feudal. Christianity becomes the dominant religion in these kingdoms, the spiritual center of which in the West is considered to be Rome. In general, we can consider that during this period the foundations of modern Western European civilization were laid. Establishment of the regime of dominance in the Roman Empire. The split of the empire into Western and Eastern. Barbarian invasions and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. A long period of political unrest and turmoil, characteristic of most of the 3rd century AD, when on the throne at times there were completely

We can say that the period of dominance in relation to the state and the individual finally broke with ancient traditions - even those illusory remnants of freedom that were preserved in previous periods disappeared. The ideals of antiquity continued to manifest themselves for some time in the cultural and religious spheres. Significant changes also occurred in the economic sphere: the primary exploitation of slaves according to the scheme of classical slavery was replaced by the use of colon labor, when slaves were riveted to the land, providing them with agricultural implements and taking part of the harvest.

Legally, the colons remained the full property of the slave owner, but in terms of the type of exploitation they were close to the serfs of the Middle Ages. Unlike slaves, colons were much more interested in the results of their labor. The last remnants of self-government disappeared in the cities: city magistrates, inherited from the era of classical antiquity, became an instrument for collecting taxes and controlling the population, and the subjects of the empire had fewer and fewer opportunities to change their place of residence. The tax press of the state practically confiscated all surplus production. Only such a strict financial policy could ensure the functioning of a huge apparatus with a large bureaucracy and a large standing army. In terms of the type of power and model of relationships between the individual and the state, the Roman Empire began to more and more resemble eastern despotisms.

Significant changes occurred with the accession to the throne of Emperor Constantine I (306 - 337). Unlike Diocletian, who persecuted Christians, Constantine issues the Edict of Milan, establishing religious tolerance. In 325, the Council of Nicea was held, headed by Constantine, who approved the canon of faith, in particular, the list of holy books of Christians, and condemned Arianism. Since the reign of Constantine, who himself was baptized before his death, Christianity has become the dominant religion, and attempts to revive paganism during the reign of Julian the Apostate (361 -363) could no longer change this situation. The end of the era of antiquity was also reflected in the sphere of monetary circulation: it fell into decay, the economy of the empire increasingly acquired a natural character, in This was facilitated by the fiscal policy of the state itself, a decrease in the content of precious metals in coins, which led to the disappearance of full-fledged coins from circulation. It got to the point that even the salaries of officials and soldiers were paid in kind.

After the death of Emperor Theodosius (379 - 395), the empire was divided into two parts - Western and Eastern, the latter with its capital in Constantinople is called Byzantium.

In the last decades of the existence of the Western Roman Empire, barbarian pressure on its borders increased; Byzantium also experienced similar pressure, but it managed to resist. It should be noted that a significant role in the fall of the Western Empire was played not only by the strength of the barbarians themselves, but also by the degeneration of the Roman army, in which the same barbarians often served as mercenaries; practically nothing remained of the former army with its discipline and specific methods of warfare. In 410, Rome for the first time since the Gallic invasion of 387 BC. was taken and plundered by the enemy - the army of the Visigothic king Alaric. From the beginning of the 5th century, in fact, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire began: in 420, the Vandals strengthened in Spain, and the kingdom of the Visigoths was formed in Gaul and Spain. In 455, the Vandals under the leadership of Genseric took Rome, and in 476, a mercenary in Roman service, the leader of the German tribe of Sciri, Odoacer, removed the young emperor Romulus Augustulus from the throne and sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople, which formally confirmed the cessation of the existence of the Western Empire.

This is how the story ends Ancient world, the last millennium of which in the Mediterranean region was marked by the development of ancient civilization, which became the basis of modern Western European and Eastern Orthodox civilizations. During this period, science appears, basic categories and concepts are developed political culture, still in use today; The main forms of power and political structure in most countries of the world originate precisely in the ancient era.

Short description

The purpose of the test: to consider the crisis of antiquity and the emergence of Christianity.

Test objectives:

1. Reveal the causes of the crisis of ancient civilization.

2. Consider the origin and spread of Christianity.

3. Consider the changes taking place in ideology and public organization, their influence on the fall of the Roman Empire.

INTRODUCTION
1. The crisis of ancient civilization
2. The origin and spread of Christianity
3. Changes in ideology and social organization
4. Fall of the Western Roman Empire
CONCLUSION
LIST OF REFERENCES USED

Contents of the work - 1 file

With the advent of Christianity, a kind of state within a state arose within the Roman Empire. The Christian community (church) has developed its own moral and legal norms, one of the features of which was opposition to the Roman state. And the state could not help but feel this - the persecution of Christians began.

Christians were indeed subject to a number of prohibitive laws of the empire. They represented an association - a college, although only funeral colleges were allowed by law (the poor bury each other together), Christians organized prayer meetings, they held meetings at night, which was strictly prohibited. But first of all, from the point of view of the Roman state, Christians were “bad” pagans, not only in relation to Jupiter or Venus, but also (which was simply unacceptable) in relation to Roma-Augusta, that is, the current emperor-god. In fact, Christians were indeed the most dangerous enemies of the empire, as they opposed slavery, bureaucracy, and restrictions on spiritual life in general.

Repressions against Christians went through two periods: popular and state persecution. Initially, there were few Christians, and it was easy to set ignorant people against them, thus writing off all crimes and mistakes. However, the number of Christians decreased slightly, the repressions only rallied the true believers around the bishops, and Christianity continued to spread. And soon many already had a Christian neighbor about whom it was not easy to remember anything bad. Then the popular attitude towards Christians became more sympathetic, and the state had to act independently, causing silent disapproval of the persecution by the pagans. The most severe persecution of Christians dates back to the 3rd century. n. e. - mass executions in circuses.

3. Changes in ideology and social organization

As a result of Diocletian's reforms, the Roman state was greatly strengthened and centralized. The republican system was replaced by a strong, highly structured monarchy. The militarization of power and bringing it closer to the provinces temporarily increased the efficiency of government, but could not solve the serious problems of society. The most difficult was the crisis of ideology. Constantine tried again to carry out a syncretic reform and only after being defeated did he turn to the possibilities of a Christian organization.

Meanwhile, the church, which went through one after another stages of its formation, had to avoid the most serious dangers: take on an uncontrolled ecstatic character or become part of ancient pagan science (Gnosticism). By 314, when religion was recognized as "permitted", Christians themselves needed organization, from the point of view of the state, since each part of the empire had its own holy books, and there were many differences in the system of worship. Therefore, by order of Constantine, the First Ecumenical Council was convened in Nicaea in 325, which established general rules of behavior for Christians and mandatory prayer - the Creed. These council decisions made it possible to make Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.

As soon as this happened, a gradual process of liquidation of ancient culture and civilization began. This process was connected, on the one hand, with the development of the monastic movement, on the other hand, by order of the emperor, pagan temples, statues and libraries were destroyed. But even within Christianity itself there was a struggle for the centralization of ideology and organization.

A struggle ensued over the question of the essence of Christ. It acquired its greatest severity in Alexandria. At the center of these disputes was the local presbyter Arius, who taught that Christ was the Creation and not the true God and that His divine dignity was based on moral merit. The local bishop Alexander spoke out against such an opinion in defense of Orthodoxy. But Arius' sermons were more popular, because in them he used the melodies of famous songs of his time. The dispute over the issue of Arianism was brought to the specially convened First Ecumenical Council. The meetings of the council ended with the expulsion of Arius. But Arius had friends in the Sacred Bedchamber, so he soon returned and expelled Alexander.

The Roman priesthood tried to exploit the dispute within Christianity. In 363, Emperor Julian, raised by priests, came to power. Realizing that violent actions would lead nowhere, he wrote a book against Christianity, trying to split the new faith. But in the first military campaign he was killed and no further attempts were made to restore the ancient religion.

The Roman state, after the official recognition of Christianity, changed a lot in a short time. Of particular importance was the development of monasticism in accordance with the teachings of St. Anthony and Pachomius the Great. Cities emptied and went bankrupt, taxes were collected less and less, the army became mercenary, “barbaric” in composition. In society, a tendency gradually emerged towards corporate organization based on the attachment of a person to a type of life and way of action. The population was now divided into three main categories: “the purest” - nobility, high-ranking people; “people of honor” - wealthy population; "small people" These categories were established by law. Moving from one category to another was prohibited. Residents were not allowed to move from place to place or change their occupation. Now every person must be assigned to one or another corporation: those who pray; peasants; artisans; officials. This new structure of society was sharply different from the previous one and was characteristic in general for the beginning period, for the history of the Middle Ages.

4. Fall of the Western Roman Empire

At the end of the 3rd century. V Central Asia, due to climate change, a severe drought began, which set in motion the local people - the Huns. Forced to look for places to pasture, they moved west, beginning the Great Migration. In the 4th century. they passed north of the Caspian Sea and, moving further west, forced the Germanic peoples to retreat to the borders of the Roman Empire. The Roman state was forced to repel the almost continuous onslaught of the Germans. Christians sometimes refused to participate in wars and bear arms, and the Romans often had to hire the same Germans to repel external attacks.

In 378, under the blows of the Huns, the tribes of the Goths (Germanic people who originally lived in the territory of modern Sweden) crossed the border of the empire. The Romans could not stop their onslaught. They had to agree that the Goths would live on their territory as allies - federates. The Romans promised to help them with food. But, having received nothing, the Goths rebelled. The emperor himself moved the legions against them. The decisive battle took place near the city of Adrianople. In this battle, the Roman legions were defeated and Emperor Valens died. Tens of thousands of Germans immediately crossed the border in many places. With great difficulty, commander Theodosius managed to restore order. He recognized all the resettled Germans as federates.

Theodosius briefly regained control of the state. In 395, dying, he finally divided the empire into two parts - Western (Hesperia) and Eastern (Romania). This division led to the fact that each part of the Roman state had its own fate. Romagna survived because it had rich agricultural regions (especially Egypt). Therefore, trading cities, taxes and militia were preserved here. Hesperia had no major economic centers, so the economy was largely destroyed, and Hesperia survived the division for less than a hundred years. Both of these empires no longer had Rome as their capital. Since 321, the capital of Romania was Constantinople, and the capital of Hesperia was the city of Ravenna, located in swamps, among impenetrable forests.

In 410, Gothic troops under the command of Alaric besieged Rome. An army of ten thousand Goths captured the city. The fall of Rome shocked contemporaries. After 410, Rome was no longer able to recover, especially since civil strife continued in Hesperia.

In 451, a huge army of the Huns and their allies crossed the borders of the empire and, in the vicinity of the city of Chalons, on the Catalaunian fields, met with the troops that the dying Western Roman Empire was able to gather. The Huns were led by the famous Attila, whose army numbered about 60 thousand people. But, although the Roman Empire was experiencing a crisis, the commander Aetius armed the German tribes of the federates and sent Gothic troops against the Huns. A decisive battle has taken place for the future of Europe. The onslaught of the Huns was terrible. The Gothic ruler died. As a result of the counterattack, the Goths pushed the Huns back to Attila's camp. Attila was saved from certain death by Aetius, who feared the victory of the allies no less than defeat from the Huns. He convinced the Goths to retreat, causing them to quarrel among themselves. The Huns escaped defeat.

A few years later, Rome was besieged by the Vandals under the command of Geiseric. The emperor promised to marry his daughter to Geiseric, but changed his mind, which led to war. In 455, a huge fleet of 200 ships arrived from Africa, where the Vandal state was located. Rome was taken by storm and destroyed to the ground. The city was plundered. Works of art were destroyed. Rome turned into a pasture and was abandoned for many years.

But the state of Hesperia, with its capital in Ravenna, still existed. In the early 470s. The sick Romulus Augustulus was elevated to the throne. In 476, the head of the Praetorian Guard, Odoacer, took away the signs of imperial power (insignia) from him and, since he himself did not want to become emperor, ordered them to be sent to Constantinople. The events of 476 are considered to be the end of the Roman Empire.

The Roman state was the highest achievement of the first stage of human history. It was based on the idea of ​​a “world city” and relied on laws that have retained their significance to this day, but pagan religion and ancient culture gradually exhausted the possibilities of their development. The Roman power was replaced by the Christian Church, which brought a different culture and statehood. Changing paradigms of social development, as always, turned out to be very painful. The empire was replaced by "barbarian" kingdoms, unable to preserve the achievements of antiquity and too weakly organized to spread the Christian faith among the population.

CONCLUSION

Christianity arose in the 1st century. AD in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. In that era, there was a crisis in the spiritual values ​​of the Roman world, a decline in public morality, an alternative to which could have been religious and moral searches, manifested in the emergence of various religious groups and ethical teachings. There were also ideological prerequisites for Christianity and its evolution.

Ranovich believed that the emergence of Christianity was connected with the deep crisis of the slave economy . To characterize this crisis, he cited in his book excerpts from sources dating not only to the first centuries of our era, but also to the 2nd-1st centuries. BC, when civil wars took place in Rome, ending with the fall of the republic and the establishment of an empire.

Currently, scientists view the mentioned civil wars as a manifestation of the crisis of the ancient civil community, and not of the entire slave-owning society. Roman conquests of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC, which turned vast areas of the Mediterranean into powerless provinces of Rome, led to complex socio-economic and political consequences that were caused by the discrepancy between the organizational forms of the civil community and the needs of the “world” power. Of course, in the crisis of the Roman Republic in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC. a major role was played by the aggravation of class and social struggle, including powerful slave revolts. However, the economy of the Roman state was multi-structured, and the forms of class struggle were very diverse.

In the five centuries following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the vast majority of the population of the Roman Empire, including the emperors, became Christian. In 312, Emperor Constantine the Great accepted this belief, and his example was followed by his three sons, who also became emperors. An attempt by Constantine's nephew, Emperor Julian (nicknamed the "Apostate"), to revive paganism (in 361–363) failed. By the end of the 5th century. Christianity became the state religion of Armenia, Christian communities appeared in the Persian Empire, in India and among the Germanic peoples on the northern borders of the Roman Empire.

Among the reasons that prompted the majority of the population of the Roman Empire to accept Christianity are the following: 1) the gradual decomposition and decline of Greco-Roman culture; 2) the adoption of the Christian faith by Constantine and his successors; 3) the fact that in Christianity people of all classes and nationalities were accepted into a single, common brotherhood and that this religion could be adapted to local folk customs; 4) the church’s uncompromising commitment to its beliefs and the high moral qualities of its members; 5) the heroism of Christian martyrs.

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The ancient phase crisis, on the contrary, has been documented and analyzed. To a very good approximation, the chronology of the post-traditional catastrophe coincides with late history Rome. Ancient globalization is “to blame” for the fact that phase processes turned out to be tied to such an ephemeral structure as an imperial-type state: Rome successfully structured the space of the “expanded Mediterranean” and created within its boundaries common life formats, educational standards, and types of activities.

The ancient crisis allows us to trace all the features of the stage-by-stage collision of civilization with the phase barrier.

Roman civilization came into its own Golden time in the era of Scipio Africanus the Younger, that is, approximately in the middle of the 2nd century BC. During this period, Rome annexed Spain, destroyed Carthage, creating in its place the province of Africa, which in the future would be one of the main sources of commercial grain. The Roman world-economy is formed and spread throughout the Mediterranean. The political system is strengthening.

But by the end of the century the first “bell” rang out: the unfortunate Jugurthine War, the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (the first step of the great migration of peoples). Gaius Mbrius, due to his military leadership, manages not only to repel the invasion, but also to saturate the state's markets with slaves (102 BC, the battle of Aqua Sextiae, 101 BC, the battle of Vercellae). The payment turns out to be Civil War, first on the list, and proscriptions. Blood was shed for almost a century, until Octavian Augustus came to power and created the Principate (27 BC). During this period, the most significant Roman families were physically destroyed. The civil wars of the 1st century were supposed to lead to the death of the Roman state and a phase catastrophe. This did not happen through the efforts of Caesar and Octavian, who annexed grain-rich Egypt to Rome and opened the field for the expansion of the traditional phase of development in its highest form into Gaul and Britain.

When studying Roman history, it seems that the emperors imagined a phase barrier and made enormous and deliberate efforts to keep the Eternal City from total disaster generation after generation.

By the third century, the impetus that the Roman economy received after the annexation of Gaul was exhausted, the phase crisis manifests itself in trends of decline Agriculture and the rapid decline of the middle class, independent peasant producers. Since the latter were the social base of the Roman state, as voters, taxpayers and soldiers, both the standard of living and the level of security in Rome began to decline rapidly. This led to progressive depopulation and made it necessary to attract barbarians to public service in the Empire.

At the first stage, we are talking about the admission of individual non-citizens, primarily into the army. The barbarization of military command posts spreads quite quickly, and emperors of barbarian origin also appear. This process is accelerated by the permanent political crisis of the third century: the Civil War of 193-197, the assassinations of Geta (211), Caracalla (217), Macrinus (218), Elagabalus (222), Alexander Severus (235), after which the period of imperial leapfrog begins . The entire third century can be described as one continuous significant event.

The empire was falling apart. Some order was restored by Diocletian and later by Constantine, under whom the Christianization of Rome began: in practice, it was about the most important element of the phase transition - the installation of a fundamentally new Christian transcendence. The price was the creation of a dominant, that is, the rejection of all remnants of the republican political system, the division of the Empire (293) and the transfer of its capital to the east, to Constantinople (330).

This deprived Rome of its status as the capital of the world and put it under direct attack.

Emperors defend a hopeless position with great skill, but phase problems grow faster than they can be resolved. Since the middle of the third century, an acute financial crisis has been diagnosed. The decline of agriculture forces emperors to formally attach free peasants to the land, and feudalization of the dominant agricultural sector of the economy occurs.

The demographic degradation of the Roman people and the barbarization of ancient space continue. Letae emerge - self-governing barbarian colonies scattered among the Roman population. Letas are formally subordinate to the central government, but enjoy autonomy and retain national law and traditions.

By the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th century, the population of the Great Steppe increased sharply. First of all, this was due to a change in the moisture regime, and secondly, to the spread of Roman forms of organization and culture. As a consequence, the barbarian world was in motion, putting pressure on the Roman defensive positions along the Rhine and Danube.

The barbarian tribes of the borderlands, being in close contact with Rome, quickly became Romanized, which entailed an increase in social organization - a transition from complete anarchy to strong tribal unions and the beginnings of statehood. Together with an increase in the level of agricultural development, this led to an accelerated growth of the population of Limes - the barbarian periphery, directly adjacent to the Roman lands.

Rome is forced to pursue an increasingly large-scale resettlement policy. Federative treaties were concluded with the barbarian leaders, according to which they were recognized as allies (foederati) of the Roman people. According to these treaties, the barbarians received areas of the Empire for settlement and a monetary allowance, accepting vassal obligations: they pledged to remain faithful to the emperor and protect the state from the invasion of other barbarians. According to federal treaties, Rome did not renounce rights to any lands: the barbarians, being stationed by the will of the emperor within the boundaries of his state, were for the Roman administration only auxiliary troops, accepted with their wives and children onto the lands of the empire and bound by a special status.

The federates retained not only their own laws, but also independence and political organization; They recognized as leaders the national kings, who alone were responsible to the emperor, who, in turn, paid them the established maintenance.

The Edict of Honorius of February 6, 398 ordered the settlement of barbarians under a billeting order, allocating them a third of the house and arable land, as well as slaves on terms of use (hospite, stranger, temporary settler). The Ostrogoths limited themselves to this third, the Visigoths and Burgundians reached two thirds, but within the framework of the law.

The foederati, of course, plundered everything they could in the areas transferred to them and sometimes carried out robbery attacks on other territories of the Empire, but, paradoxically, they actually defended Rome from barbarian invasions. The fact is that they considered “real barbarians”, not yet Romanized, not only as competitors, but also as ideological enemies.

In the mid-fifth century, barbarians fight barbarians in the heart of Gaul (Battle of the Catalaunian Fields of 451). Three years later, another significant event occurs - the murder of Aetius, the last great Roman.

There are even too many significant events: the death of emperors. lost battles, the robbery of Rome, the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus... We can almost accurately indicate the beginning of the phase catastrophe - the moment of Rome's collision with the post-traditional (industrial) barrier, but its ending is lost in the unknown. The fact is that Rome failed to cross the industrial barrier, but created a number of mechanisms and institutions adequate to the next industrial phase of development. And first of all we are talking about the Christian religion and the organizing structure of the Roman Catholic Church. In the future, this structure will be developed into a system of monasteries, and later it will give rise to universities, religious orders, including the Franciscan, natural philosophy and science, “the beloved daughter of the church.” Availability Roman Catholic Church determined the preservation of a certain political and moral unity in centuries critical for civilization. To a certain extent, the Western Roman Empire did not perish in 476, it simply changed its name and titular people. Since the end of the fourth century, a strange and precarious balance has been established: in essence, the traditional phase of development is dead, the industrial phase has not yet been born (the barrier has not been crossed), and the onset of the Dark Ages is prevented by the coherence created by Christianity. And also – the inertia of large systems.

But in the end, civilization still did not survive. In the sixth century, the aqueducts were destroyed. Epidemics and famine drive people from cities, literacy practically disappears, and the world crumbles into a patchwork quilt of feudal lords.

It took several centuries for the Roman Church to realize its duty and its right to act as an integration force and proclaim a common campaign of the West against the East. And two more centuries to exhaust in Crusades the overwhelming passionarity of chivalry. And two more to build the High Middle Ages, draw a line under the Dark Ages and, in general, achieve the standard of living of the Romans of the Golden Age, surpassing them in quality of life, education, and intentions for development.

At this moment the plague comes to Europe, signaling last act ancient phase catastrophe.

Conventionally taking the Battle of Aqua Sextiae (102 BC) as the beginning of the phase transition, and the discovery of America by Columbus (1492) as its end, we obtain that the phase transition between the traditional and industrial phases took almost 1600 years in Europe . On the one hand, this testifies to the talent of the Romans, who beat historical necessity for three and a half centuries. On the other hand, about the depth of phase withdrawal after the catastrophe. The revival of civilization required a whole millennium, and even today the Roman world has been restored only in general, and the Mediterranean transport ring remains open.

This, however, did not prevent the installation in the European world-economy of the industrial phase of development and the acquisition of a planetary character by this phase. Your full development the industrial phase of development reached before the outbreak of the First World War.

By the 3rd century. AD Ancient Rome was one of the two largest and most powerful empires on Earth with a population of about 50 million people, and in Europe it was the only state. The capital - the "Eternal City" - Rome with a population of about 1 million people was also the only one of its kind in Europe.

But the potential of the state was already exhausted. It is known that the power of this power with an almost thousand-year history rested on two “pillars”: ancient slavery and ancient democracy. However, in the first centuries of the new era, these fundamental principles were already pretty rotten.

Slavery, as is known, is the most ineffective way of organizing labor. It ignores the personal interest in the work of the employee himself. The effectiveness of the system was based on the surplus of cheap slaves, who came in an uninterrupted flow primarily from the barbaric, primitive periphery. This, by the way, taught the Romans to solve all their problems in a purely colonial way, through external expansion. But there is a limit to everything. From the first centuries of the new era, tribal unions of barbarians began to form on the borders of Rome, which already began to show stubborn resistance (remember the lost legions of Quintilius Varrus in 9 AD . BC from the Germans in the Teutoburg Forest and Octavian has tears in his eyes). Huge borders, extended communications, a roiling sea of ​​slaves within the country, to control which entire armies were diverted - all this weakened the military capabilities of the state rstva. and the armies themselves were no longer the same as under Caesar and even Octavian. The Samoyed policy towards its own peasantry, noticed even by the Gracchi brothers who died in the fight against it, exhausted the internal human resources of the support of order - the Roman people oda. Legions made up of federated allies, or even barbarians simply hired into service, were unreliable, to say the least. Moreover, devoid of patriotism, such legionnaires served exclusively for money and benefits. If they defended Rome, they nevertheless robbed it materially, draining its finances. As a result, Rome's military capabilities dried up, and the influx of slaves decreased. Having become scarce, slaves naturally rose sharply in price, so much so that it even became profitable to raise them in captivity. It's safer, but much more expensive. Due to the rising cost of slaves, their labor became too expensive. And since it was unproductive before, it stopped bringing in the usual income. The welfare of the Romans fell, which reduced their purchasing power. This means that business activity decreased and tax collection became more difficult.

The harmfulness of the unbridled expansion of the past centuries has now become obvious. The effectiveness of managing the giant state required enormous funds. The old democratic institutions were becoming obsolete from the beginning of the new era. Previously beaten officials were usually maintained at the expense of local funds or were generally performed for free as an honorable duty. This control system was cheap. But in a huge state it became slow and ineffective. Instead of a republic, a principate was established, and then a more open, totalitarian dominance. The place of elected administrators was taken by officials subordinate to their superiors - and so on until the person of the emperor. The functionality of this huge management vertical could only be ensured with money. There was no longer any talk about any work on a public basis, because the position of an appointed one, and not a freely chosen one, cannot be honorable. In addition, the local rich man was independent in many ways, which was unprofitable for the central government, but the official could not be dependent - he had no other means of subsistence than receiving a salary data from a superior officer.

The result is that in addition to the increasing costs of maintaining a huge and essentially mercenary army in the first centuries of the 1st millennium AD. e. Expenditures on public administration are growing sharply. But the strict centralization of a huge country (we have a wealth of historical experience before us) is not capable of maintaining proper order for a long time. And this is during the ensuing economic crisis, which sharply reduced tax revenues to the state treasury. Officials and the army ate up all the income and there was not enough of it. Society was heading towards decline.

The changes that took place also suggested a way out of the impasse. The economic crisis and the fall in purchasing activity reduced the need for huge slave latifundia. Smaller villas became economically more profitable, in which the forms of slave exploitation began to soften. Slaves are given land, creating conditions both for their reproduction and for interest in the results of their activities. Costs for security and supervisors are also reduced. From a talking tool, the slave turns into an economic subject. The transfer of slaves to peculium brought them closer to the tenant farmers-colons. This was a promising path, typical of feudalism. But he did not save Rome. Colonate destroyed Roman statehood, based both on the equality of the free before the law, which was significantly undermined during the imperial period, and on the political unity of the country. Actually, the death of the republic was a response to the challenge, to attempts at decentralization at the turn of the new era. But then there was no economic crisis yet. Now the colonate extremely strengthens the provincial landowning nobility. The economic crisis is, first of all, a crisis of cities - strongholds of central power. The real power on the ground flows to local magnates, independent of the empty imperial treasury. Officials and the army without a full salary are no longer able to defend the priority of the central government. The local population comes under the patronage of real rulers. The empire is falling apart. Attempts by Diocletian and Constantine to strengthen order through administrative reforms did not bring success. The enslavement of classes - another medieval method - also did not give anything. The result is the division of the empire by Theodosius in 395 into Western and Eastern. But this could not stop the energy of decay, especially gaining inertia in the economically less developed West. Less than a century later, in 476, the Western Roman Empire fades into oblivion: the German Odoacer sends the imperial regalia from Ravena to Constantinople. Barbarians do not need these symbols.

Thus, in attempts to preserve until the last possible opportunity a strictly centralized state system, the economic transformations that began led not to a way out of the crisis, but to the collapse of partial liquidation of the state itself.

The only surviving system of Late Rome in Western Europe is the new religion, Christianity. Its emergence on the outskirts of the empire and its victorious march across the territory of the state is another reflection of both the processes of decomposition and the emergence of new sprouts. Christianity arose in a dispossessed, marginal Palestine, ravaged by oppression and uprisings. Neither Judaism nor neighboring pagan cults gave up hope for better life. And her search began in another, otherworldly world. This idea turned out to be fruitful and quite quickly penetrated into the confused, troubled Roman society. But the egalitarian and ascetic ideas of the marginalized and some of the aristocrats who were confused and disillusioned with the old values ​​(for example, Augustine the Blessed) could not be accepted by wide layers of us eleniya of the empire. Religious disunity was added to social and political disunity. Moreover, unlike ancient ideological and philosophical pluralism, Christianity gradually became a totalitarian doctrine. A person of Roman culture could not accept this, as well as the recognition of the fundamental equality of all people, including slaves. The ideas of unity, equality and subordination to a single will, natural for the lower classes, could not take root in a society brought up on the ancient traditions of respect for the rights of a free individual.

But Christian ideas turned out to be consonant with the worldview of undeveloped barbarians. As a result, dying Rome left its destroyers the only connecting thread with the ancient world. This at least somewhat preserved the continuity of European development and played a significant role in the future in the formation of Western European civilization.