Roman Persecutions of Christians Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Roman Persecutions of Christians - Essay Example Many historians are of the opinion, that the Romans believed that the neglect of the old gods who had made Rome strong, was responsible for the disasters that Rome faced. Is it then safe to assume that the persecutions of Christians, stemmed from a distrust of something alien to the Romans, or were there other causes for these persecutions? The persecutions began slowly but after the middle of the third century, were initiated intensively by some of the Roman emperors. In the beginning, these persecutions were generally a result of personal hostilities between people, where the real issues were hidden behind the excuse of their being of a different faith. However, slowly Christians began to be looked upon as people who took part in weird rites, like partaking of Christ’s flesh and blood, that was mistaken for cannibalism. The distrust grew as Christians refused to take part in the pagan rites of sacrifice to Roman gods, and to the emperor who was considered a semi divine being . This was considered an insult to the gods who looked after the well being of the people, and therefore endangered the empire.There were also other reasons why the people considered the Christians unpatriotic. The Romans took pride in their Roman citizenship, while the Christians declared that they were citizens of heaven. They also shrank from obligations of public and military service. However, a closer look at the events that preceded the persecutions, paints a different picture. Persecutions were generally sparked off by certain events that went against an emperor. Is it then possible that periods of crisis like a threatening invasion, or an economic or political instability, were triggers that led to these persecutions? This seems to have been the case in the persecutions that took place when a disastrous fire broke out in Rome during the reign of Nero. The first persecution sanctioned by an emperor was in A.D. 64 by the eccentric emperor Nero. During the early years of Neroâ €™s reign, he was guided by the wisdom of his tutor Seneca and Burrus. By A.D. 62, Burrus died and Seneca retired, after which the wise constraints on Nero’s eccentric character were gone, and Nero was free to indulge himself . The costly war against Parthia and the revolts in Britain had drained the treasury and the Roman empire was in turmoil. Against this background, Nero was more interested in poetry, music and such other pursuits, and surrounded himself with frivolous and riotous companions that offended the public. His extravagances only served to further drain the imperial coffers, and taking advantage of his inattention to affairs of state, rebellions began to erupt. In the midst of these distressing events, Rome suffered the most disastrous fire in its history. Nero had become so unpopular, that people believed he had started the fire in order to be able to rebuild the city in the Greek style that he greatly admired, and also build a new and grand palace for hims elf. Although historians are unanimous in their opinion that Nero gave help to those left homeless in the fire and also rebuilt the city excellently; the rumor that the fire was the act of the self indulgence of the ruthless tyrant Nero, refused to die down. Unable to find other means of convincing his people that he was not responsible for the fire, Nero played on the fears of the people and made scapegoats of the Christians,

Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Accounting - Essay Example It also caters to a wide variety of financial services like short and long term financing, credit cards, working capital, etc. UPS was founded in 1907 and has its origin in Atlanta, Georgia (United Parcel Services, Inc. (UPS) n.d.). Companies, big or small need to analyze how their business is faring. With big organizations like FedEx Express and UPS, whose operations are from continent to continent, the need to inform its creditors and stockholders how their respective financial operations are faring is essential to attract more solid investments in order to maintain overhead costs, increase yearly profits and gain the public trust for a better flow of business. To identify and project a company’s financial condition, financial ratio analysis is often used to evaluate the financial stability of a certain entity. Financial ration analysis falls into the following categories (Credit Research Foundation, 1999): By taking a look at the above sample computations for FedEx Express and UPS, the ratios indicate that both companies are adequately liquid and could cover up for any financial loss without losing their creditors’ investments. Using financial ratios to directly compare the financial standing of companies using a different accounting method or flow different accounting practices is not feasible. However, there is no world wide standard for calculating the data But if investment is to be made, a good investor would not only look at the financial statements and calculate ratios. Other factors must be taken into consideration like how long has the company been around, the stock value of the company and the coverage of its operations. Given the history of FedEx and UPS it could be seen that United Parcels Services, Inc. has been around longer being founded in 1907 while FedEx was found in 1971. However, investors also look at the fluctuation of stock prices of the company shares. The stock