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The Role Of Christianity In Ancient Rome

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Christianity in ancient Rome was a new concept of belief, it was monotheistic, and this made some people curious: others automatically hate it. Christianity intrigued some because it promised a glorious life that could not be bought. Rich and powerful Romans were not ready to adapt to the notion that women and the poor could have a glorious life and future just as easily as them. As a result Romans felt threatened and decided to ban Christianity. Until one noble emperor finally came into play and passed The Edict of Milan which made Christianity legal. Christianity started as a completely foreign religion that was shunned upon in comparison to the polytheistic Roman religion, it gave hope to minorities like, women and the poor. Christianity …show more content…
The simplest way possible to explain why Romans started to accept Christianity is “change occurs when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing.” (qtd. Tony Robbins). This means that even though change is a horrid thing to most, some people’s lives were so bad they were willing to step way out of their comfort zone in order to have a better future. Minorities like poor people, and women had nothing in their life to strive for. Christianity promised them if they did good, there would be a future for them after life. It was the exact same for the rich, and for once both rich and poor were considered equals. Lastly Christianity was accepted because it was built off the basis of Judaism. Christianity was considered to be a continuation of Judaism. This means while Christianity might have been a completely new thing, most people were already familiar with Judism and had an insight of what Christianity was based off …show more content…
Some Emperors would slightly change Christianity and others wanted it completely gone. The overlooked Emperor Claudius was the first to have strong opinions towards Christianity. Claudius prosecuted Christians, but he never did it legally. The first Emperor to officially make Christianity illegal was Nero in 64 AD. This lasted for 4 years until he died. After his reign the emperors; Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Decius, Valerian all prosecuted Christians. Until in 313 AD when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal; that was the end of prosecuting Christians and that was the end of emperors prosecuting Christians. This lead to an influx of people converting to

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