Roman and Han Compare and Contrast Essay

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which were wealthy landowners, descendants of founding fathers, senators. Then they had Plebeians, which were not as wealthy and consisted of foot soldiers, artisans, shopkeepers, small farm owners. After that they had freemen, which was freed slaves. At the bottom they had slaves, who were cruelly mistreated. This form of social structure we see in Rome was based on heredity, property, wealth, citizenship and freedom.

A major similarity between the Rome and Han China is their religious systems In early years they both focused on rituals and themes to show their loyalty to the empire. In Rome they would do Ritual sacrifices to maintain Pax Deorum which is the peace of god’s. Neither of the empires were very spiritual. Both Han and Rome were exposed to new religions during the Classical period, China was introduced to Buddhism and Rome was introduced to Christianity. This exposure led both of the to branch out their religions, Christianity became the state religion and Han China had synchronized with Buddhism as it had spread throughout China. Both of them use religious beliefs as methods towards political control. In Han China the idea of using beliefs in politics could possible had led to its government facing serious military and financial problems which led to peasant losing faith in the government and the government disintegrating, eventually leading to Han China’s downfall. Both Han and Rome believe in divination. Ancient Rome used divination to predict what the gods intended for their political and military pursuits. Han China used divination to find out those circumstances of time and place that would be suitable for a proposed action, or whether an action could be planned so as to fit with an appropriate stage of the cycle of being.