Summarize the reasons which prove Constantine to be a great ruler

TEXT 2.

 

Before reading the text, think over reasons which may cause the collapse of some political system or civilization. Write down your ideas.

2. Read the text and compare your predictions with the reasons mentioned in the text. What reasons caused the collapse of Rome?

Why Rome Fell and Byzantium Survived

One of early historians, Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), summarized the causes of the Rome’s fall as the “triumph of barbarism and religion”.

Gibbon meant that, while barbarians threatened the empire from outside, Christianity undermined it from within, encouraging men to neglect their duties as soldiers to become monks or priests.

Other historians seeked social and economic causes for Rome’s fall as well as psychological and religious, political and military factors. Such diseases as malaria (because of the deforestation of mountains which turned into ideal malaria-bearing mosquitoes marshes) and plague.

Arab conquest also divided the Mediterranean world, turning North Africa, Syria and Egypt away from Europe and towards the Islamic east.

The Roman world was collapsing for fighting among themselves cost more than fighting enemies. And crucial weakness of the Roman Empire was its lack of an accepted system of succession: armies continued to proclaim emperors to the end.

 

Look at the map of Constantinople and speak about its geographical location: advantages and disadvantages.