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How was the eastern Roman Empire able to flourish and continue for a thousand years while the western collapsed?

The west had become weaker and weaker over time and was an easy target for barbarians. The East was more prosperous due to its favorable location within the existing trade networks. More wealth = you can pay your soldiers well = security.

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Why were so many roman emperors killed so quickly once they got power? Did they let it go to their head? Did they do something wrong? Or was someone just jealous and wanted all the power to themselves?

During that half century there was so many emperors due to civil war and various claims to the throne. A barrack emperor is by definition one who seizes power due to the military he controls, so as you can see, this is similar to a dictator seizing power, not an emperor inheriting power. Because there was no one person who people recognized as the rightful heir to the throne, there was conflict among the various military factions.

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Aside from the wide appeal from the poor and the women, how was Christianity able to spread so easily? It went against many of the predetermined philosophies, and in that time many who disobeyed didn't ever make it very far. How were Christianity and Rationality/Realism combined, when they are two very different things?

Think about the percentage of the population that were women and poor: Half were women and then at least 80-80% would be classified as poor. That's a huge audience to target and empower with promises of an afterlife that's paradise. Most women and poor people weren't exactly philosophers or educated enough for those things to matter. As for disobeying and risking your life, that goes back to Christianity's promise of an afterlife. It didn't matter to Christians if they were killed for their cause because they knew heaven awaited

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What became of the Western Empire?

Without a central government, the different parts of the empire devolved into regional rule (feudalism develops). The only commonality across Western Europe was Catholicism.

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| why was slavery so prominent in rome? |

Partly because they conquered so many different, diverse peoples and mainly because the Roman economy was dependent upon it.

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| Did other civilizations in this time period have the same enjoyment with public events and games? Why did the Romans hold these events and value them so much? |

You didn't see this type of activity in India or China, at least not on this scale. This was one of the Greek influences, but the Romans bastardized it to a degree because this "entertainment" was meant as a distraction to the masses. Basically the idea was if you're entertained by the government, you won't overthrow the government.

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| Why were the newly rich challenging the aristocracies? |

Because they can. An aristocrat has inherited his wealth. He has never lifted a finger to earn his wealth. The newly wealthy were people who had earned it, so obviously if wealth = political power, there was now a new, different thinking group of people potentially having a say over government affairs, etc.

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How much did the roman empire effect todays Europe and Americas?

The Greeks and Romans are the absolute bedrock for Western Civilization. Just about every cultural, political, social and economic legacy can be traced to one of those two in some manner.

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What exactly does it mean to be a republic and why didn't the people in charge of the republic do more to prevent Caesar and Augustus from completely changing their government

Because the people "in charge" didn't have military backing. Trust me, you'll see throughout history that "in charge" and "power" are abstract concepts unless you have the sword.

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Did Rome relay on trade at all? Or was their empire so vast it had access to most of the resources they needed.

Once Rome spread throughout the Mediterranean, it was self-sufficient for needs, but not wants. It was mostly the wants that prompted Rome to connect to other trade routes.

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How did the transition of republican to a empire effect the everyday person and even the wealthy. Did it have a huge effect on society and what were the negative and positive effect it had?

No real impact on the common person. They had no say on who was in charge anyway, so that the leader was now a dictator meant little to them. To the wealthy aristocrats, it was a huge deal, particularly with Caesar, who had been taking land and giving it to others, including his soldiers.

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In the Punic Wars, what was Rome's motivation for fighting for the Sicilian grain supply? Was there a famine or did they fight to prove to superiority or something? |

This was about Roman expansion in general, but the grain supply was a focus to help feed the ever-expanding empire. The reason we mention this war among the many the Romans fought is because it tilts power toward them as opposed to Carthage, who had been the main power in the Western Mediterranean.

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Why were the armies devoted to the emperor, Caesar in particular, but not Rome itself?

This was due to two real factors: 1) So many people in the empire were so far from Rome's center that they truly never felt a part of the empire, so local loyalties were stronger and 2) Their general, if a good one, had earned their respect, had fought bravely with his men as opposed to some bureaucrat or politician sitting comfortably in Rome.