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Roman Religion Essay

785 Words4 Pages

During the Roman monarchy and throughout the beginning of the Roman Empire, the official religion was polytheistic, they believed in several gods. These gods were worshipped through festivals and were offered sacrifices to ensure a good relationship and to not provoke their wrath. Roman emperors used their power to create different edicts and codex with the intent of prohibiting Christianity and other forms of religious deviation from occurring in the empire. These practices were criminalized as an attempt by roman authorities to ensure either the safety or unity of the roman people.
The Bacchanalia were Romans festivals in honor of Bacchus, the roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy. While the festival was originally innocently, …show more content…

This edict showed the emperor intolerance towards Christianity. During the reign of Diocletian, there was a shift of attitude amongst the officials who began showing prejudices against those who refused to worship the traditional roman gods. In his edicts Diocletian commanded “that the churches should be razed to the ground, the Scriptures destroyed by fire, [and] those who held positions of honor degraded, and the household servants, if they persisted in the Christian profession, be deprived of their liberty.” These edicts reinstated the persecutions of Christians and ended the peaceful coexistence of different religions that existed in the empire. Once these edicts were enacted many Christians were once again persecuted for their beliefs and where brought to court in order to decide whether they were Christian or not and if so what was there punishment.. During the trials on deciding where someone was a Christian or not, they were sentenced to die because of their profession of Christianity and without reference to any "crimes" charged against them by the mobs just prior to their arrest. Diocletian enacted these edicts to as a means to strengthen the empire and ensure unity. Diocletian was the first emperor who managed to bring the entire Roman Empire under his power and keep it for about 20

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