Essay On Roman Religion

Christianity is a large part of our world today. In fact, some consider it the largest religion in the world. It becomes the most popular religion in ancient Rome. Romans were around for about 1000 years before Christianity overcame the Romans. The first century C.E. saw the birth of Christianity. People didn’t trust the Christians. With the fear of Christians, it was very easy to have Romans go out and find them so they could persecute them. The Christians met in private. They would meet regularly and worship their god. The Christian holidays fall on Roman holidays because the Christians could celebrate in disguise while the Romans were celebrating. Traditionally the Christians, when entering a worship service, would kiss either on the mouth or cheek. Most Christians were related, so the Romans saw this as incest. At communion the Christians took the blood and flesh of Christ, which the Romans saw as cannibalism. Christians refused to give offerings to Roman gods or goddesses, which meant that they weren’t paying taxes. Paul was an apostle that felt that he was born to spread the word of the Messiah to Christians. Paul traveled, speaking to Jews and Gentiles for 30 years all across the Roman Empire. Paul was able to do this because he was a Roman citizen. Paul preached to

Christianity was rapidly growing and Nero couldn’t figure out how to stop it. Every decade the Christian population grew by 40%. Nero tried blaming the Christians for his wrong doings to turn the Romans against the Christians. For example, during the Great Fire Nero was trying to help the Romans as much as he could. However when the fire was over, Nero built a palace on the burning site of many houses. The Romans believed he started the fire on purpose because he wanted a new palace. Nero used the Christians as a scapegoat and told the Romans that the Christians started the fire as a rebellion so then the Romans went after the