What are some changes that happened in Ancient Rome...?

that have to do with culture? In other words, when and how in Rome's history did the culture differentiate?



Last Century BCE... Gladiatoral Combat moves from a special performance to honor someone who has died into a public blood sport that made many rich, killed a large number of slaves, freedmen who volunteered to be gladiators, criminals, Christians, and animals. Early in Roman history, the Romans only held gladiatoral bouts during a funeral or holiday, by the time of Caesar, he noticed that he made good money by promoting the gladiators. He soon began sponsering gladiatoral games for other reasons to increase his profits. Various political leaders also noticed that plebes distracted by the games were less likely to riot or cause trouble, and thus encouraged the increasing number of specticles to pacificy the masses.





The Reign of Constantine I, 4th Century. Ignoring political changes, remember that Constantine legalized and became Rome's first Christian Emperor. This set off a long series of changes as polytheism was eradicated in the old Roman Empire and replaced with Christianity, a religion once persecuted. This brought about many cultural changes.





The Fall of the Western Roman Empire 400-476 CE. Ignoring the fact that the political climate changed greatly, the fall of the Roman Empire also brought about great cultural change. At its height, Roman was an urban civilization with its economics based on trade, limited manufacturing, and conquest. By 400, Rome was becoming a rural state with its economics solely devoted to subsistance farming. Trade continued, but not at the same level as in the First Century, and the range of trade was much narrower. Instead of trading with Alexandria, Rome would trade with Ravenna and Mediolanum (Milan today).