In cultures around the world, religion has existed in many societies and has become intertwined with those societies maintaining the balance between religion and their daily lives. Once religion finds its way into government, the effect and use depends on the person in power. As seen in history, especially in Rome, it is important for a society to have a governing power that also incorporates and knows how crucial the role religion plays in sustaining a successful nation. From Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy the importance of religion is highlighted, but it is noted that Christianity set a precedent in being separated from government causing vulnerability in a nation, while from St. Augustine, City of God, it was believed that all other religions, other than Christianity, should not be taken into consideration and that unscrupulous passion and ambition are Roman imperfections. These two authors had opposing ideas on how religion should play the role of government, but only Machiavelli held a more realistic point of view ergo religion is vital to the success of a nation, but in the case of Rome, the presence of Christianity brought to the fall of Rome separating Church and State instead of being a unified body, balancing government and religion. Augustine was a devout believer of Christianity and saw nothing wrong with its principles, but Rome has never been the same in strength and unity after Christianity came to power, which means there is some kind of problem. According to Saint Augustine there is a City of Man and a City of God, but only the City of God is omnipotent because the City of Man is imperfect. St. Augustine describes these two cities: “In one, the principles and nat...... middle of paper ...... formulating the idea that religion is necessary for success, Christianity could not reconcile with the government by making religion fail. Consequently, religion and government must be one, otherwise there will always be a barrier separating citizens. Machiavelli had a much more reasonable idea that religion and government can be a unifying element, while Augustine seemed to be too proud of his religion to see its own shortcomings. Rome has always been successful with religion compared to the model established by Numa, but once Christianity came to power it turned into a completely new story because Christianity and Rome were unable to merge to work together because their ideals were different. This separation of church and state ultimately led to the fall of Rome. Rome will never be the same again as long as this fracture and the fight over virtues remain.