Christianity In Roman Empire

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"The Fall of Rome, the biggest and greatest of all Empires, was due to the Faith of people the Romans deemed weak and inconsequential,” Kailin Gow (GoodReads, 2017). Authors and historians alike agree that the Roman Empire went through a massive change sometime after 300 AD. Before this, the Roman gods were worshiped and praised. After, Christianity started to become more prevalent and eventually led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The two religions of paganism and Christianity could not work in tandem. Over a period of 1,066 years, the Roman Empire went from pagan to Christian.
Pagan history in the Roman empire can be dated all the way back to the story of how Rome was founded. The historian Livy wrote down the legend in 28 BC of …show more content…
There is no set date on when Christians all of a sudden showed up in Rome because it was a slow build. They were peaceful and kept to their own. However, the first Christians were persecuted in Rome in 54 AD. The Christians were seen as in tandem with the Jews who Romans did not particularly like and soon revolted in 66 AD. Christianity was a religio licita (an unlawful religion not signed off on by Rome) that would not follow the pagan ways of throwing incense on the emperor’s altar, which signified the imperial cult. Pliny, a Roman governor, complained of just this to Trajan the emperor. Trajan saw no harm in the Christians as they were modest and did not seek violence. The Roman government was not offended by the Christians until an unnamed governor made it alright for citizens to accuse others of being in a religio licita aka …show more content…
In Christianity, there is only one true God; whereas, there are too many gods to count in paganism. Those who recognized as pagan would have been fine with the Christians as it was just another god, but Christians believed God the only god and wouldn’t let it be. Unlike Christianity, paganism relied on sacrifice, often. A Roman god would not help or bless someone without a sacrifice or the right prayer. As shown with Perpetua and Felicity, all people were equal under Christ which definitely clashed with the pagan ideology that those connected to the gods are more important. Even the governmental style was different. In the early Roman Empire, the government focused on senate and rulers connected to the gods. A person could not hold power too long lest they be struck down by the gods. Conversely, in the late Roman Empire the bishops were the political leaders in a city or state who preached for piousness and devotion to God. There was no fear of holding office for too long and rulers ruled longer. All of these differences led to a new Roman
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