Religious persecution in the Roman Empire
Religious persecution in the Roman Empire / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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As the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, expanded, it came to include people from a variety of cultures, and religions. The worship of an ever increasing number of deities was tolerated and accepted. The government, and the Romans in general, tended to be tolerant towards most religions and religious practices.[1] Some religions were banned for political reasons rather than dogmatic zeal,[2] and other rites which involved human sacrifice were banned.[3]
When Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire, it came to accept that it was the Roman emperor's duty to use secular power to enforce religious unity,Anyone within the church who did not subscribe to catholic Christianity was seen as a threat to the dominance and purity of the "one true faith" and they saw it as their right to defend this by all means at their disposal.[4] This led to persecution of pagans by the Christian authorities and populace after its institution as the state religion.