Editing Religion in ancient Rome (section)

====Christianity in the Roman Empire==== <!--linked-->
{{See also|Pentarchy|History of Christianity|Persecution of religion in ancient Rome|State church of the Roman Empire}}
[[File:Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer - Walters 37113.jpg|thumb|303px|''The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer'', by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] (1883)]]
Roman investigations into early Christianity found it an irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic sub-sect of Judaism: it appeared to deny all forms of religion and was therefore ''superstitio''. By the end of the Imperial era, Nicene Christianity was the one permitted Roman ''religio''; all other cults were heretical or pagan ''superstitiones''.<ref>Beard et al., vol. 1, 225: citing Pliny the Younger, ''Letters'', 10.96.8, & Beard et al., Vol. 2, 11.11a: citing Tacitus, ''Annals'', 15.44.5.</ref>

After the [[Great Fire of Rome]] in 64 AD, Emperor [[Nero]] accused the Christians as convenient scapegoats, who were later [[Persecution of Christians#Persecution of early Christians by Romans|persecuted]] and killed. From that point on, Roman official policy towards Christianity tended towards persecution. <!-- Fix preceding. Interpreted and cited from here, apart from final section -->During the various Imperial crises of the 3rd century, "contemporaries were predisposed to decode any crisis in religious terms", regardless of their allegiance to particular practices or belief systems. Christianity drew its traditional base of support from the powerless, who seemed to have no religious stake in the well-being of the Roman State, and therefore threatened its existence.<ref>Leppin, in Rüpke (ed.), 98.</ref> The majority of Rome's elite continued to observe various forms of inclusive Hellenistic monism; Neoplatonism in particular accommodated the miraculous and the ascetic within a traditional Graeco-Roman cultic framework. Christians saw these practices as ungodly, and a primary cause of economic and political crisis.

In the wake of religious riots in Egypt, the emperor [[Decius]] decreed that all subjects of the Empire must actively seek to benefit the state through witnessed and certified sacrifice to "ancestral gods" or suffer a penalty: only Jews were exempt.<ref>Potter, 241-3: see 242 for Decian "libellus" (certificate) of oath and sacrifice on papyrus, dated to 250 AD.</ref> Decius' edict appealed to whatever common ''mos maiores'' (ancestors' customs) might reunite a politically and socially fractured Empire and its multitude of cults; no ancestral gods were specified by name. The fulfillment of sacrificial obligation by loyal subjects would define them and their gods as Roman.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 241.</ref><ref>Roman oaths of loyalty were traditionally collective; the Decian oath has been interpreted as a design to root out individual subversives and suppress their cults: see Leppin, in Rüpke, (ed.), 100.</ref> [[Apostasy]] was sought, rather than capital punishment.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8EgCRHxfouQC&dq=Diocletian+Imperial+cult&pg=PA55 Books.Google.co.uk], Rees, 60. Limited preview available at Google Books</ref> A year after its due deadline, the edict expired.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MNSyT_PuYVMC&dq=Jews+Decius+exemption&pg=PA627 Bowman et al., 622-33. Books.Google.co.uk], Limited preview available at Google Books</ref>
[[File:Siemiradski Fackeln.jpg|thumb|left|303px|''[[Nero's Torches]]'', by [[Henryk Siemiradzki]] (1876). According to Tacitus, Nero used Christians as human torches]]

[[Valerian (emperor)|Valerian]] singled out Christianity as a particularly self-interested and subversive foreign cult, outlawed its assemblies and urged Christians to sacrifice to Rome's traditional gods.<ref name="Rees, 60">Rees, 60.</ref><ref>Beard et al., 241.</ref> In another edict, he described Christianity as a threat to Empire – not yet at its heart but close to it, among Rome's equites and Senators. Christian apologists interpreted his eventual fate – a disgraceful capture and death – as divine judgement. The next forty years were peaceful; the Christian church grew stronger and its literature and theology gained a higher social and intellectual profile, due in part to its own search for political toleration and theological coherence. [[Origen]] discussed theological issues with traditionalist elites in a common Neoplatonist frame of reference – he had written to Decius' predecessor [[Philip the Arab]] in similar vein – and Hippolytus recognised a "pagan" basis in Christian heresies.<ref>See Leppin, in Rüpke (ed.), 98–99; citing Eusebius, ''Historia ecclesiastica'' 6.19.15; 21.3–4; 36.3</ref> The Christian churches were disunited; [[Paul of Samosata]], [[Bishop of Antioch]] was deposed by a synod of 268 both for his doctrines, and for his unworthy, indulgent, elite lifestyle.<ref>Leppin, in Rüpke (ed.), 99; citing Eusebius, ''Historia ecclesiastica'', 7.29–30: Paul actually remained in office until "Aurelian's victory over Palmyra in 272, when he was forced to leave the 'building of the church'...&nbsp;Political conflicts, local rivalry, and theological debates converged in this quarrel."</ref> Meanwhile, [[Aurelian]] (270–75) appealed for harmony among his soldiers (''concordia militum''), stabilised the Empire and its borders and successfully established an official, Hellenic form of unitary cult to the [[Palmyra|Palmyrene]] ''[[Sol Invictus]]'' in Rome's [[Campus Martius]].<ref>Cascio, in Bowman et al. (eds), 171.</ref>
[[File:George Hare - Victory of Faith.jpg|thumb|303px|''[[The Victory of Faith (painting)|The Victory of Faith]]'', by [[Saint George Hare]], depicts two Christians in the eve of their [[damnatio ad bestias]]]]

In 295, [[Maximilian of Tebessa]] refused military service; in 298 [[Marcellus of Tangier|Marcellus]] renounced his military oath. Both were executed for treason; both were Christians.<ref name="Rees, 60" /> At some time around 302, a report of ominous [[haruspicy]] in [[Diocletian]]'s ''domus'' and a subsequent (but undated) dictat of placatory sacrifice by the entire military triggered [[Diocletianic Persecution|a series of edicts]] against Christianity.<ref>Lactantius, II.6.10.1-4. A date of 302 is regarded as likely. [[Eusebius]] also says the persecutions of Christians began in the army; see Eusebius, II.8.1.8.</ref> The first (303 AD) "ordered the destruction of church buildings and Christian texts, forbade services to be held, degraded officials who were Christians, re-enslaved imperial freedmen who were Christians, and reduced the legal rights of all Christians... [Physical] or capital punishments were not imposed on them" but soon after, several Christians suspected of attempted arson in the palace were executed.<ref>Leppin, in Rüpke (ed.), 103: citing Lactantius, ''De mortibus persecutorum'', 14.2; Eusebius, ''Historia ecclesiastica'', 8.6.6.</ref> The second edict threatened Christian priests with imprisonment and the third offered them freedom if they performed sacrifice.<ref>Eusebius, ''Historia ecclesiastica'' 8.2.5, 8.6.10.</ref> An edict of 304 enjoined universal sacrifice to traditional gods, in terms that recall the Decian edict.

In some cases and in some places the edicts were strictly enforced: some Christians resisted and were imprisoned or martyred. Others complied. Some local communities were not only pre-dominantly Christian, but powerful and influential; and some provincial authorities were lenient, notably the Caesar in Gaul, [[Constantius Chlorus]], the father of [[Constantine I]]. Diocletian's successor Galerius maintained anti-Christian policy until his deathbed revocation in 311, when he asked Christians to pray for him. "This meant an official recognition of their importance in the religious world of the Roman empire, although one of the tetrarchs, Maximinus Daia, still oppressed Christians in his part of the empire up to 313."<ref>Leppin, in Rüpke (ed.), 103: citing Lactantius, ''De mortibus persecutorum'', 34 & 13 &; Eusebius, ''Historia ecclesiastica'' 8.17.3–10 & 8.2.3–4.</ref>