Essay: Christianity In Rome

585 Words2 Pages

Bryan Byerly
Mrs. Wagner
Western World 10 Seminar- 4
4 December, 2013
Christianity in Rome Essay Christianity became more prevalent in Roman society as time went on because it appealed to Rome and what Roman ideals were. In the beginning Romans were skeptical of changing religion, but as the years went by, the Romans adopted and changed. Christianity appealed to the Roman ideals, as it gave certain perks that their current polytheistic religion did not offer to them. The emperors of Rome had many different views on Christianity; some emperors encouraged change, and others were more traditional and wanted to stick to their current, polytheistic religion. Roman views on Christianity have changed drastically from the early years of the Roman …show more content…

The Romans could learn to live with other religions, but not when they were harmful to public order. At one point, Romans viewed it to be just that. Christians tended to hold get-togethers in private places and communicated with other groups from outlying places. Christians only recognized their own god, and because of that they didn’t attend festivals that were a tribute to the more popular gods and goddesses. Romans thought that since the Christians didn’t wish to worship state gods, they were just in punishing them for being atheist. The persecution of Christians that went on in the first, as well as the second century, was random and local. Nero was the emperor that started the persecution of Christians. After the Great Fire of Rome, the Christians were blamed and called arsonists, as well as causing them to receive vicious deaths in Rome. During the second century, the Christians were often just ignored. Even at the end of the 5 Good Emperors reigns, Christians still didn’t represent a large part of the Roman society. But, as time went on, Christianity grew more popular, and the Roman attitude towards it was

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