What circumstances existing within the Roman Empire and/or Judaism allowed for the flourishing of Christianity?

What circumstances existing within the Roman Empire and/or Judaism allowed for the flourishing of Christianity?

Rome, being one of the super powers of that time was in control of the birth of christianity. Rome did not have any problems with Jews if they payed their taxes and contributed to society. However, Romans did not believe in the religion of the Jewish people which if why judaism did not flourish as much as much as Christianity did. After Jesus died and christianity flourished Rome incorporated and accepted Christianity the Jewish people were looked down upon more than they were and as the Romans in Judea spread the ideas of christianity, the rest of the Roman empire started to use it.

How did the Romans manage to effectively combine their whole empire into one unit

Through the many connections that Rome had, it made it easier for the Whole empire to be one Unit. The Roman Empire really started to flourish after the death of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E and during Augustus's rule which was mainly during the Pax Romana or the peace that existed between all the nationalities within the Roman Empire. For one thing, Rome had an enormous population. Julius Caesar granted whole towns and cities outside of Rome Citizenships and during the reign of Augustus the increase of the citizen roll was approximately 900,000! The peak of the amount of citizens in Rome was approximately 100 million people. Citizenship helped to Romanize the empire. In modern day society towns, cities and states are connected by many roads and this is quite similar to what the Romans valued. The total mileage of roads in Rome is at an estimated 47,000. The empire was 2000 miles from north to south and 3000 from east to west . These roads helped connect the whole empire to the city of Rome itself. As the Roman empire reached out so did the roads.
As we studied Jared Diamond we learned about how important the placement of a civilization is. The Romans used their location to their advantage. In 30 B.C.E the Romans conquered egypt enabling them to use the rich silt that was in the nile and other various rivers and Rome was able to have many different minerals to trade because of the placement of their empire. Not only that but if you look at a map of the Roman empire you can see that it surrounds the Mediterranean in an oval and this makes trade and contact for all of the City-states a lot easier. In conclusion the population, roads, location and size of the Roman empire most definitely helped the Romans effectively combine their whole empire into one unit.

How would an Athenian of the 5th Century BCE criticize our present-day representative democracy?

Because of different ideas of Athenians and modern day people, the athenians would have much to criticize. An athenian democracy was very individualized and spoke the actual voice of each citizen by using the "Stone method" which included the citizens having one white stone and one black stone. White for Yes or black for no. This took a lot longer than our modern day way, which is electing one person to speak on our behalf, a representative. An athenian would say that having a representative does not voice the whole civilization as opposed to each individual actually giving their own opinion on the matter. Also another Athenian could say that this gives the people some power of their own so no matter what social class an individual is they still have an opportunity to have power and voice their own opinion opposed to modern day society where people cannot decide what they want because the representative choses what ever he/she wants. Another way of putting it, a representative democracy does not include the population. If I were to ask an athenian about how accurate our representative democracy i they would say that one person cannot voice the whole population upon whom they are representing which would lead to verdict that would contradict some peoples beliefs.
In Conclusion, an Athenian would have many things to criticize about our Representative democracy and we discover that there is not a perfect way to run any system of government.

How do we see Mayan values exemplified in modern society?

In our modern society many examples on mayan values have been shown in such important things such as the styles of food, language, science, art and sports. Mayan art, which is the topic i focused on in my studies, is best exemplified in modern day by just walking in San Francisco. In many areas in San Francisco there are drawings, pictures, or murals. Mayans did the same type of thing. They displayed their art everywhere in doorways, bowls and temples. The art in temples leads me to another major thing that shows Mayan values in modern society because of the many ways that art is used for religious uses. Such as modern day temples such as the Sixteenth Chapel that has beautiful art displayed all around it. Sculptures were used be holders for incense burning during times of prayer and other paintings and sculptures were created as a sign of gratitude and devotion to their gods. As i said before art was painted on bowls which leads me to another point which is the different styles of food. Mexican cuisine has very similar to the foods that the Mayans favored which were beans corn chili maguey and maize which were convenient for the Mayans because of their climate. Now, mexican is a majority favored meal styles and is personally one of my favorite types of food. Another connection that could be there most famous discovery is there extremely accurate calender which includes a 365 days in a year, which is still used today however had 18 20-day months with a 5-day month. Throughout history this has been strangely extremely accurate. In our modern society we do not replicate the Mayans but we do take and agree with many of their values but add our little twist that makes our society unique just as the Mayans are.

The effectiveness of having Confucianism Legalism beliefs to maintain order as a ruler

A ruler must treat his people with empathy respect to get them to want to help and follow you. however legalism rules in fear. Legalism is when no one asks questions, everyone follows the law because they know that if they do not follow the law there be strict consequences. The conflicts of this is that if a ruler separates himself from his people and make them fear him, it can often lead to revolt or sometime of threatening move to the ruler. The benefit of following the Legalist belief is that people will do what that ruler say because they fear you and that leaves the ruler will be in complete and utter power. Confucianism is something completely different but that to has its pros and cons. Something that would help a ruler maintain order in a society is treating people fairly and with compassion but also leaving them a responsibility to do there part in society. Things that can be deficient is that a ruler might not be as powerful and might not be able to run his/hers society in the way that ruler would prefer.

strategies to maintain order as a ruler

There are many efficient strategy options for a ruler to lead in. That ruler could lead with strength or weakness, fear or happiness. The most effective way to maintain order would be to take a mixture of both like in the 100 chinese schools of that different parts from different ideas were inferred which made some societies very successful. If a ruler were to rule with strength but empathy it could let that rulers followers know that he is in power yet compassionate so people would not wish to lead a revolt. If a ruler was wanted his/her people to be happy yet know that if there is something done that is against what that ruler stands for, his followers would still feel fear. In conclusion it is important to take the best of both worlds and to extrapolate the most important ideas and values to maintain order.

Jared Diamond's thesis/theory

I agree with Jared Diamond’s theory of Geographical luck and how important the location of a civilization is for it to be long lasted and successful. I agree with him because in the case of the New Guineans, their location was in an area with no cereal grains like wheat and barely and no labor animals such as horses, oxen, and camels. However because of the geographical location of Middle Eastern civilizations that dwelled in the Fertile Crescent, they had access to the many things that can keep a civilization going such as cereal crops and labor animals.

The New Guineans in addition did not really have a time where they could control nature and be able to plant food where they wanted leading to less food and an even smaller amount of animals just as the civilizations in the Fertile Crescent had. Also for Middle Eastern civilizations, it was very easy to move from place to place but for the New Guineans they were stuck where they were unable to move.