and with the Christians.
History / Evolution of Civilization
13-CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Prof.Dr. Halit Hami ÖZ
Kafkas Üniversitesi/Kafkas University
Kars, Turkey hamioz@yahoo.com
CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Rome’s success during the days of the Republic is certainly surprising. Even more surprising in some ways is Rome’s success under Augustus and the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome.
But, when it comes to surprises, Roman history has an even more amazing surprise-the eclipse (disappearance) of Roman paganism and the triumph of Christianity.
This change is, in many ways, one of the greatest surprises in all of history.
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CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Paganism is the term we use for the old polytheistic Roman religion, the religion associated with the worship of
Jupiter, Juno, Mars, etc.
Certainly it is in many ways surprising that this religion would disappear.
Paganism had many strengths, strengths that make it surprising people would ever abandon it.
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Strengths of Paganism
First of all, Paganism had going for it its antiquity, the fact that it had been around for so long.
Antiquity is a good thing in a religion: the longer a religion has been around, the more likely people are to believe that it is true.
For the Romans in particularly, antiquity was valued. The
Romans believe in the Mores Maiorum, the ways of the ancestors, and the worship of Jupiter, Juno and the rest was part of that ancestral tradition.
“Gimme that old time religion, gimme that old time religion, give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me.”
Well, for the Romans, paganism was that old-time religion. It was good enough for their fathers—and it should have been good enough for them.
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Strengths of Paganism
A second strength of paganism was its tolerance.
Paganism was eclectic and syncretistic.
Eclecticism comes from a Greek work which means to choose.
An eclectic religion is one where people can pick and choose from a great variety of traditions.
Syncretism involves an emphasis on similarities rather than differences.
The Romans worshipped Jupiter, Juno, and Mars.
When they encountered people who didn’t worship those gods, they didn’t emphasize the differences.
Instead, they just argued that these peoples worshipped the same gods, but called them by different names. The Greek Zeus? That’s our Jupiter. The
Greek Hera? That’s our Juno. The Greek Ares? That’s our Mars.
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Strengths of Paganism
The result of all this is that, like Hinduism, Roman paganism had a remarkable ability to absorb new religious impulses and add them to the mix.
There was something for just about every taste within the Roman tradition.
A good example is Pagan attitudes toward sex.
Temple prostitution was accepted within the pagan tradition.
On the other hand, suppose you are totally turned off by sex.
Well, you can join the cult of Attis and Cybele where men go through a ceremony in which they are castrated, giving up sex altogether.
Whatever you are looking for, you can find within the pagan tradition.
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Strengths of Paganism
Another strength of paganism was its tie to the political system.
Men like Julius Caesar had gained prominence and popularity in part through their service as aediles
(religious officials) or, in Caesar’s case, as Pontifex
Maximus, the high priest of the Roman religion.
When Augustus establishes the emperor cult, the tie between politics and religion is even closer.
To question the religious tradition means to question also the emperor and becomes close to treason.
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Strengths of Paganism
But the greatest strength of paganism was its hold on people’s imaginations.
Paganism permeated every aspect of Roman society: the arts, literature, etc.
One out of every three days on the Roman calendar was a religious celebration of one sort or another.
And there were all sorts of incentives to participate.
At a pagan sacrifice, the wealthier members of society would provide a sacrificial animal.
But the meat from that animal might be shared among all those attending the sacrifice.
A free steak dinner! Who wants to turn that down?
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
Nevertheless, there were some real weaknesses in Roman society, weaknesses great enough that it is perhaps not so surprising that the
Romans would consider changing something even as fundamental as religion.
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
Rome faced political problems. For over four centuries, Rome had been a Republic.
The Roman people elected their own leaders and made there own laws.
By the time of Augustus, the Republic had come to an end, and there was among some Romans a feeling that something had gone drastically wrong with their society when Romans could no longer maintain their Republican form of government.
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
And while the imperial system wasn’t bad under men like
Augustus, when you had a Caligula or a Nero on the throne—well, obviously something had gone wrong.
Making matters worse was the periodic instability of the imperial system.
After Nero’s death, there were four emperors in the space of a year: civil war and assassination was a real problem.
Later, things would get even worse. Between 235 and 284
AD there were 26 emperors—only one of whom died a natural death.
Civil war, invasion, usurpers—no wonder the Romans were looking for answers. http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
In addition, Rome faced the problem of ethical breakdown.
The Romans had once been among the most moral of all people.
But, by the time of Augustus, Roman morality was a thing of the past.
This is particularly clear when it came to sexual morality.
One Roman writer says that, in an earlier period of history, there was a two hundred year period where he couldn’t find record of a single divorce.
By his own day, however, he wrote that people getting married expected to divorce—and to remarry, and to divorce, and to remarry and to divorce.
And even when they were married, they didn’t pay much attention to marital fidelity.
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
Now marriage breakdown is a sign of moral breakdown in general.
A fundamental principal of morality is the Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Suppose one doesn't follow this rule in married life, that one treats the people one should love most (wife, husband, and kids) with utter disrespect for their feelings.
The principle established is that my own desires are more important than anything else—and it’s almost certain that, if one doesn't treat one's family well, one won't treat others appropriately either.
And it’s no wonder that marital breakdown in Rome is paralleled by a breakdown in political morality (bribery and corruption everywhere) and economic immorality (vast fortunes made by exploiting others). http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
In addition to all this, Pagan religion itself had some growing weaknesses.
By associating their gods with those of the Greeks, the Romans ended up absorbing Greek attitudes toward the gods.
While the original Jupiter had been the embodiment of noble principles, the Greek Zeus was quite different—a god who spent his time cuckolding mortal men, and who (if the myths could be believed) actually raped his mother.
Hardly the kind of god worthy of worship!
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
Further, the Romans inherited both Greek skepticism--a tendency to doubt the gods even existed--and Greek fear of the supernatural.
Many Romans were (as the Apostle Paul noted) “deisidaimoneros”—too fearful of demons.
But the greatest problem of all for the Roman people was simple that so many of them were unhappy.
A society based on slave labor meant that many millions suffered harshly under the master's whip.
It also meant that, for many free-born Romans, there weren’t enough jobs. As many as 1 out of every three Romans was on the equivalent of welfare.
Not having a meaningful job is *extraordinarily* demoralizing.
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
Roman leaders adopted an inadequate solution, the policy of bread and circuses.
Give the people enough to eat, and lots of entertainment, and hope that that is enough.
Well, it wasn’t. Entertainments got more an more violent.
At first, a pair of gladiators fighting to the death was enough amusement.
But, by the time of Augustus, a *real* show might have 1000 pairs of gladiators!
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Weaknesses of Pagan Rome
The high rate of suicide is one clue as to the deep unhappiness of many Romans.
Also an indicator, the high rate of infanticide.
The most important sacrifice people make to keep their society going is the sacrifice involved in the bearing and raising of children.
The fact that many Romans would no longer make this sacrifice shows a society no longer providing emotional fulfillment, no longer convincing people that it is a society worth making sacrifices for.
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Christianity as a problem
So, with all this, was Christianity the obvious solution?
Not at all. At first, it looked like Christianity was just adding to the problems of Rome.
Christians were thought to be a political problem.
The wouldn't swear an oath of allegiance to the emperor as a god, the equivalent of not saying the flag salute.
To a people worried about political stability (and sometimes invasion from without), Christian failure to support the emperors divinity meant political disunity and potential trouble.
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Christianity as a problem
Likewise, Christians were believed to be horribly immoral people.
Pagans believed Christians practiced incest and cannibalism.
They also believed that Christians were atheists and haters of mankind.
Would you visit a church where, if rumor was to be believed, people practiced cannibalism and incest?
Where atheism and hatred flourished? In view of such commonly held beliefs about Christianity, it’s surprising people looked twice at this new faith.
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Persecution of Christians
Also making the survival and eventual triumph of
Christianity surprising is the intense persecution of
Christians.
Imperial persecution of Christians began with the emperor Nero.
Nero, who had been blamed for starting the fire that destroyed much of Rome, needed a scapegoat.
He blamed the Christians for the fire, and began punishing them as if they really were responsible.
He killed most of the leaders (including Peter and Paul) and put the Christians to horribly cruel deaths.
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Persecution of Christians
Nero, of course, was something of a madman, as were several of the early persecutors.
But good emperors and good officials persecuted the
Christians too.
The emperorTrajan and Pliny, who served under Trajan as governor of Bithynia, gave Christians a particularly hard time.
Both these men were competent leaders, and both had the interests of the Roman people at heart.
But though they know that none of the rumors about
Christians were true, they still persecuted them. Why?
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Persecution of Christians
Pliny’s letter to helps us make some guesses.
First of all, people are complaining about the
Christians.
Those in the religion business found the competition from Christianity hitting them where it hurt—right in the pocketbook—and they ran crying to Pliny to do something about the harm Christianity was doing to business.
Further, the Christians were simply stubborn: not willing to do what Pliny so reasonably asked them to do.
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Persecution of Christians
Nevertheless, such persecution wasn’t likely to mean the end of Christianity.
Trajan and the good emperors weren’t seeking Christians out: they just dealt with them appropriately if someone else brought charges.
The situation for Christians worsened in the 3rd century.
Political instability, outside invasion, and a devastating plague had the
Romans more worried than ever that their society was falling apart.
And who was to blame? The Christians. Many Romans felt that the gods were angry because so many people had quit worshipping them.
Bring back that old time religion, and thing would be good again.
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Persecution of Christians
One who felt that way was the emperor Decius.
Around 250 AD, Decius makes the first systematic attempt to rid the whole empire of Christianity.
And now the Christians would have been in trouble—except that Decius had too much else on his plate.
He has neither the time nor the resources to make a thorough end of
Christianity.
But things change again for the Christians with the rise of Diocletian.
Diocletian was an exceptionally capable leader, and in many ways he earned the title he claimed for himself, “restorer of the world.” .
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Persecution of Christians
Diocletian took power in Rome after another series of usurpations, mutinous armies, and assassinations.
At first, he seemed like just one more soldier emperor, no more likely to succeed than any of his predecessors.
But Diocletian was determined to preserve his life, to preserve his power, and to restore peace and security to the empire. http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Persecution of Christians
He came up with a brilliant way to do this.
The problem for previous emperors stemmed in large part from the necessity of fighting on several fronts at the same time.
The Rhine, Danube, and the Euphrates all had to be well supplied with troops.
But a general sent out with enough force to deal with the problems in these areas was very likely to succumb to the temptation of instead making his own bid for power.
An emperor could, of course, lead the troops himself…but not in all three places at once!
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Persecution of Christians
So what do you do?
Well, what if the man sent out cannot possibly be made emperor?
That might work, yes? But what kind of person can't you make into an emperor? Well, what about someone who is emperor already!!!
What Diocletian does is to divide the empire into two parts. He chooses a co-emperor (an Augustus) to rule with him, Maximius.
Later, he adds two junior emperors (Caesars), Constantius and
Galerius. http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Persecution of Christians
This is a more than decent solution to the problem.
The Allemani are beaten while Galerius pacifies the Goths and Diocletian inflicts a major defeat on the Parthians.
Also, there is an obvious potential solution to the succession problem here, a system sort of like that of the Five Good Emperors.
When an Augustus retires, his Caesar moves up, and chooses a new Caesar.
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Persecution of Christians
Political stability. Economic recovery. Hope for the future. And just one more little problem to solve: the
Christians.
In 303 AD (almost 20 years into his reign),
Diocletian’s Caesar, Galerius, convinced him that it was time to deal with one more serious threat to the stability of the empire.
Time to get the gods back on their side, and deal, once and for all with the Christians.
At first, Diocletian ordered the churches destroyed, the scriptures burned, and the exclusion of Christians from all offices and authority. http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Persecution of Christians
This was not enough. He now ordered the leaders to be imprisoned and compelled with every type of torture to sacrifice to the emperor as a god.
Still not enough. So Diocletian set out to get all the Christians, rich and poor, young and old, male and female.
Refuse to sacrifice, and you’re imprisoned, tortured, and eventually dead.
And now the Christians were in real trouble. They had been persecuted before, but never by a ruler with the ability to devote full attention to the job.
Diocletian (and even more Galerius) were also doing their best to restore pagan worship, building temples, planting groves, and sending pagan priests everywhere.
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Persecution of Christians
Not long after beginning this great persecution and trying to bring back that old time religion of Rome,
Diocletian decided to retire, and to force his co-
Augustus also into retirement. The new leaders:
Augusti: Constantius, Galerius
Caesars: Severus, Maximinus
This was as smooth a transition as possible.
Diocletian had done it! Stability.
Peace. Prosperity. And those pesky Christians would be gone soon as well. http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Persecution of Christians
But the best laid plans of mice and men gain oft aglay.
Constantius dies unexpectedly in 306 AD, and now there's a question: who should take his place.
Severus? Well, Constantius soldiers say no: they want
Constantine, the son of Constantius.
And, from retirement, Maximian pipes up with his own candidate: Maxentius.
Eventually, there are six Augusti fighting for two spots…and Rome is at war with itself again….and with the
Christians.
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Persecution of Christians
Galerius, despite the difficulties of the civil war (which should have been his main priority) decided to step up the persecution of the Christians.
Eusebius of Caesarea, who was fortunate enough to survive this bloody time, left us an account of some of those things the Christians suffered: http://www3.northern.edu/marmorsa/histor y121.htm
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Persecution of Christians
1. It would be impossible to describe the outrages and tortures which the martyrs in
Thebais endured.
They were scraped over the entire body with shells instead of hooks until they died.
Women were bound by one foot and raised aloft in the air by machines, and with their bodies altogether bare and uncovered, presented to all beholders this most shameful, cruel, and inhuman spectacle.
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Persecution of Christians
2. Others being bound to the branches and trunks of trees perished.
For they drew the stoutest branches together with machines, and bound the limbs of the martyrs to them;
and then, allowing the branches to assume their natural position,
they tore asunder instantly the limbs of those for whom they contrived this.
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Persecution of Christians
3. All these things were done, not for a few days or a short time, but for a long series of years.
Sometimes more than ten, at other times above twenty were put to death.
Again not less than thirty, then about sixty, and yet again a hundred men with young children and women, were slain in one day, being condemned to various and diverse torments.
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The Great Surprise
It’s AD 311. A sick Galerius is on what he suspects is his death bed.
But he still has time to issue one of the strangest decrees in history, the Edict of Toleration (read in class).
It didn’t do Galerius any good…at least not in this life, and Galerius death made the political situation in
Rome even more confused.
And then we get the beginning of another great turning point for Rome.
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The Great Surprise
One of the contenders for Augustus in the West, Constantine, was headed toward a decisive battle—and he knew it.
On the eve of the battle, he supposedly had a dream instructing him to put the chi/rho symbol on his banners.
And then, before the battle itself, he looked up to the sun for a sign.
Well, he got his sign…and perhaps a voice as well, “in this, conquer.”
What’s it mean? Constantine thought these things were signs of favor from the Christian God.
And since that god had favored him, he was determined to return the compliment.
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The Great Surprise
He, and his partner in the east (Licinius), issue the Edict of Milan
(313), a decree favoring the Christians (read in class).
Constantine soon went beyond the Milan edict with…
--Money to Christian clergy
--Laws against those trying to turn people away from the church
--The exemption of Christian clergy from taxes
--The forbidding of soothsaying in private (though public soothsaying ok!)
--Sunday set aside as a day of rest (for everyone except farmers)
Thus in less than ten years, Christianity had emerged from the greatest of all persecutions as the religion most favored by the
Roman state!
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