The Role Of Christianity In Ancient Rome

Throughout all of history, one thing remained constant, and that's the fact that religion played a huge role in all societies. An example of this would be the role of Christianity in Ancient Rome. Christianity was a religion that the Romans has never seen before and was challenged for its beliefs and morals. Although the Romans questioned the religion, Christianity spread rather easily in Rome as a result of its vast territories being in one governance. In the end as time went by, all the Roman gods went away and was replaced by the beliefs of Christianity. Before Christianity, the Romans were polytheistic, meaning that they believed in multiple gods. They also believed in sacrifice for protection from anything bad and were very superstitious (Fowler 281). There were countless gods and goddesses each for different purposes. Because of the Greek colonies in the Lower Peninsula, the Romans adopted many of the Greek’s gods as their own. The Roman’s “...religion and myth became one. Under this Greek influence, the Roman gods became more anthropomorphic – with the human characteristics of jealousy, love, hate...” (Wasson).
A great figure that spread Christianity was a Roman ruler, Constantine. As was said before the Romans did not accept Christianity challenged its beliefs and morals. Early Christians were killed and tortured by the Romans. Christianity was unlawful until Constantine converted to Christianity, which in turn made the Roman’s leave their religion, and adopted Christianity as their official religion (Latourette 174). Although Constantine helped spread Christianity there were also things that he did that didn’t necessarily helped the religion. Constantine used Christianity as a way to control the people. He changed the rules of Christianity and set himself up as a god