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Marathi

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Urdu

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Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

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Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

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Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

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Oromo

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Chinese, Gan

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Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

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Bihari, Magahi

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Akan, Fante

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Chinese, Min Bei

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Marwari, Dhundhari

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Chinese, Min Dong

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Swedish

Hmong

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Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The arrival of new traditions of faith was a defining feature of <OpenstaxTerm>Late Antiquity</OpenstaxTerm>, and state-sponsored religion was a critical element in the conduct of empires’ relations with one another and with their own subjects. An increasing number of individuals in Late Antiquity came to identify themselves not as citizens of a particular location or even an empire, but as members of the community associated with their religion.
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	Unlike paganism, <OpenstaxTerm>Christianity</OpenstaxTerm> was a proselytizing religion; that is, Christian leaders hoped to convert others to their faith. Elite Christian thinkers disseminated religious knowledge to a wide audience and strove to construct a single agreed-upon narrative of what Christian identity meant. Theological writings, <OpenstaxTerm>ecumenical councils</OpenstaxTerm>, and the interpretation of Christian rituals were all part of this meticulous effort, and ongoing participation in the defining of belief and practice were instrumental in Christianity’s spread during this period.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The running of the state also became intimately tied to religion and religious policy, as the policies of Justinian and other Christian emperors and the institution of <OpenstaxTerm>Zoroastrianism</OpenstaxTerm> in the Sasanian Empire show. The Aksumites and Himyarites too, although they embraced different faiths, used religious imagery in their inscriptions and monumental buildings. Each empire’s elite endorsed this kind of religious messaging, converting to the new faith in great numbers, while the general populace in Late Antique communities often remained religiously diverse.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxTerm>Judaism</OpenstaxTerm> became a religion without a firm geographic center after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the first century CE. The <OpenstaxTerm>Jewish diaspora</OpenstaxTerm> refers to the subsequent dispersion of believers out of the traditional Jewish homeland of Israel/Palestine, which led Jewish groups around the Mediterranean to feel a sense of displacement and the need to form a community. Though some of their individual practices may have differed, those in locations as varied as Spain and southern Arabia could largely agree on the tenets of their faith. In Late Antiquity, Christian theologians’ attitudes toward Jewish people hardened, and restrictive laws were instituted by the Byzantine emperors. Yet despite these hostilities, Jewish culture flourished, especially in Palestine, resulting in the construction of many new synagogues and art (<a href="#fig-00003">Figure 10.17</a>).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/b5d50d523ae435204c5e8d377510501984ca610f" alt="A painting is shown of women standing along a river with dark, curly plants growing along both sides of the river. Two women in the left part of the painting are dressed in long brown and white robed clothing and cloth dressings on their heads, both tugging at a naked infant with black hair. The next three women are seen in sleeveless long dresses and short head covering holding various shaped and colored jugs and jars. The last woman is wearing long robed white clothing over a long-sleeved brown shirt, wearing a long white head covering, and holding her right hand out to another woman who is shown only halfway in the painting, wearing a long pink dress and long pink head covering. In the white-gray water there is a naked lady with long black hair and a necklace holding a naked infant with black hair. In the water a brown rectangular object with a triangle top on the right side floats next to the woman. Above the women’s heads there are beige and blue drapes and the background is a hazy purple color." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1100" height="685" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1100">
	<strong>Figure 10.17</strong> This wall painting from a third-century synagogue in the city of Dura-Europos, in modern-day Syria, is one of many with biblical themes. It depicts the discovery by the pharaoh’s daughter of the infant Moses in the Nile River. (credit: “Dura Europos fresco Moses from river” by Unknown/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Christians marked their devotion in numerous ways during this period. One was <OpenstaxTerm>asceticism</OpenstaxTerm>, a form of self-denial that includes foregoing bodily pleasures and adopting a life of chastity, virginity, and renunciation of normal society. Monasteries that housed groups devoted to the ascetic life spread across the empire, usually in remote locations and often in the desert. Despite their isolation, however, many accepted visitors, so that the reputation of various holy people might spread to Christians everywhere. Many ascetics played a leading role in their communities, sometimes extending beyond the realm of civil behavior. For example, Late Antiquity witnessed a surge in violence carried out by ascetic monks against nonbelievers in cities of the empire, in an effort to preserve a sort of “pure” Christianity.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
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	Despite continuing efforts to define proper Christian orthodoxy, regional differences among religious sects persisted during this time. For example, a crucial divide developed between urban and rural devotion. <OpenstaxTerm>Saint Anthony</OpenstaxTerm> was perhaps the most famous of the so-called <OpenstaxTerm>Desert Fathers</OpenstaxTerm> who in the third century chose to give up his possessions and practice asceticism in the Egyptian desert. These ascetics attracted followers, and as a result monasteries and hermitages flourished in less hospitable areas. Monasteries such as <OpenstaxTerm>Kellia</OpenstaxTerm> in the Egyptian desert housed a community of monks who lived together but had some contact with the surrounding region, while hermitages were places of more extreme seclusion for the religiously devout. By contrast, churches and synagogues were located in often crowded cities, where attendance at services was a daily life for laypeople. But these religious centers had to compete with other concerns for people’s attention. Evidence suggests that elements of religious devotion that originated from the polytheistic environment of earlier centuries also persisted, such as home shrines, magical spells, and other private practices.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	On a larger scale, geographic divisions produced different types of devotion. <OpenstaxTerm>Aksum</OpenstaxTerm> in Ethiopia embraced a unique version of Christianity because of its relative isolation from the rest of the Christian world. In the Mediterranean as well, people of the same faith could differ in their experience of the same religion. For example, <OpenstaxTerm>Nestorian Christianity</OpenstaxTerm> emerged in the fifth century in the debates about Christ’s divinity, claiming that Jesus existed as two individuals—human and divine. Though officially rejected by the church in the ecumenical <OpenstaxTerm>Council of Chalcedon</OpenstaxTerm> in 451, Nestorius’s teachings flourished in Persia and spread eastward due to the efforts of missionaries.
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10.3.3 Religious Influence at the End of Antiquity

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

Question	Answer
the practice of self-denial and rejection of pleasures as a way to express religious devotion	asceticism
the dispersion of the Jewish people beyond their ancestral homeland of Israel/Palestine following the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple	Jewish diaspora