This document discusses the early spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. It describes how Paul of Tarsus helped spread Christianity and how early Christians were initially tolerated but later persecuted for refusing to worship Roman gods. Christians took refuge in the catacombs of Rome. The catacombs provided burial spaces and examples of early Christian art. Eventually, Constantine converted to Christianity and it became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Theodosius.

1. E X P L O R I N G T H E
R O M A N C U L T U R E
Chapter 5: The First World
Civilization: Rome, China and the
Emergence of the Silk Road

2. Background on Christianity
 Who was Jesus?

3. Paul of Tarsus 25-67 C.E.
 Helped spread the word of Jesus Christ
 Hebrew name was Saul
 Was a Pharisee, a strict adherent to Jewish law
 Persecuted early Christians but underwent a
conversion on the road to Damascus
 Supported the position of the Hellenist Jews who
saw Christianity as a new, universal religion

4. The Persecution of the Jews/Christians
 At first, Roman officials were indifferent to the new
religion
 But soon there were problems because the Christians
would not worship ancient pagan deities or the
emperor and were accused of
disloyalty, atheism, and crimes such as
cannibalism, infanticide and were blamed for
plagues, floods, famines
 Examples of what was said by prominent Romans
 Christians began to be persecuted and found safety
in the catacombs like those under the city of Rome

5. History of the Catacombs
 In the first century, Rome’s Christians did not have
cemeteries. If they had land of their own, that is
where they buried their dead
 In the first half of the second century, the Christians
received grants and donations of land and then
started to build catacombs

6. More on Catacombs
 Many catacombs were family tombs who were new
converts to Christianity
 These families allowed fellow Christians outside of
their own families to be buried there.
 There are more than sixty catacombs in Rome with
hundreds of miles of galleries and ten of thousands
of tombs
 There are also catacombs in North Africa, Naples,
eastern Sicily
 These catacombs are basically cemeteries

7. However, catacombs are cemeteries with a story!

8. Other images from the catacombs

9. The catacombs gave us great examples of early Christian
art

10. More of the most important images is that of Christ

11. Another image of Christ

12. The catacombs allow us to know the lives of early
Christians

13. Triumph of Christianity
 In 303, Diocletian launched a serious persecution of
Christians in the Roman Empire
 However, such persecution could not stem the tide of the
growing Christian community which was bolstered by the
example of martyrs
 The conversion of Diocletian’s
successor, Constantine, (312) and Constantine’s lavish
support for the church and encouragement of conversions
transformed the Christian community
 In 394, Theodosius forbade the practices of pagan cults and
by his death, Christianity was the official religion of the
Roman Empire

14. Chronology of the Triumph of Christianity
 Jesus of Nazareth is born in ca. 4 B.C.E.
 Crucifixion of Jesus in ca. 30 C.E.
 Gospels written in ca. 70-100 C.E.
 Major persecutions by Decius and Valerian in ca.
250-260 C.E.
 Persecution by Diocletian in 303 C.E.
 Conversion of Constantine to Christianity in 312 C.E.
 Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E.
 Christianity becomes official religion of Roman
Empire in 395 C.E.