CHRISTIANITY

From a Roman perspective, Christianity initially was just one more strange mystery cult from the East. It is only through hindsight that we know its eventual importance and role as the official religion of the Roman state. The key characteristic of Christianity that would eventually separate it from other mystery religions was the Christians' insistence that their god was the only god. At the time, this was a unique perspective, shared only by Judaism, from which Christianity had branched off. Even devout followers of mystery religions such as the worshipers of Mithras would never have thought to assert that their god was the only god. This clash of perspectives between the predominant polytheism practiced by pagans and Christian and Jewish monotheism initially caused the martyrdom of some Christians but ultimately resulted in the religion's emergence as the dominant one in Europe.

Early Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism. Jesus was born and raised as a Jew; despite our dating system, he was probably actually born around 4 bc, so our calendar is likely off by several years. He lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius and was crucified around ad 27. Perhaps the most important figure in the spread of Christianity after Jesus's death was the apostle Paul. He was a Greek, a Jew, and held Roman citizenship and thus was heir to many of the main cultural movements of the period. After his conversion to Christianity, he spent the rest of his life constantly traveling around the Mediterranean, preaching and attempting to convert others. In this way, he also was responsible for the spread of the religion beyond Judea.

Christianity spread very slowly. It was most successful in the most strongly Romanized areas of the empire, particularly in cities and in the eastern Mediterranean. Very gradually, with its promise of immortality and its emphasis on morality and good behavior, the religion gained converts, especially among those who occupied low status positions in Roman society, such as slaves and women. One of the very earliest references to Christianity in a non-Christian source (a letter of the Roman governor of Pontus and Bithynia, Pliny the Younger, written in the early second century ad) contains the interesting detail that the leaders of a local congregation of Christians were two slave women (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96).

Romans were generally very tolerant of other religions, but the monotheism of Christianity and Judaism created problems. At the core of these conflicts was the Roman state's insistence that citizens occasionally perform rituals directed to the emperor as a kind of civic pledge. This might take the form of saying a prayer before a statue of the emperor and making an offering such as pouring out some wine. To the Romans, this was merely part of good citizenship, but to the Christians, of course, such an action would violate the first commandment, and so they refused. This was to some degree a failure of communication, but the result was persecution.

The first widespread persecution of Christians at Rome occurred in ad 64, though its cause was not so much religious belief as Nero's need to find a scapegoat to blame for the Great Fire. To divert suspicion away from himself, he claimed that the Christians had started it. After this incident, there were sporadic persecutions, but the first empirewide one did not

Figure 10.10 Colossal head of Constantine, the first emperor to convert to Christianity,

Come until the late third century ad under Diocletian, Events took an abrupt and unexpected turn early in the next century when the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. At this time, a full 300 years after the death of Christ, only a tiny minority of Romans, perhaps around 10 percent, had converted to Christianity; but from this point on, all but one of the emperors would be Christian, and within 100 years, the religion would be proclaimed the official one of the Roman Empire,

Probably the most famous and distinctive archaeological remains from the early Christian period at Rome are the catacombs. While most pagans were cremated after death, the early Christians preferred burial, and this led to the development of specifically Christian inhumation sites. All of the catacombs, which consist of networks of underground tunnels and chambers, are located outside the walls of the city. The greatest concentrations of catacombs were built along major roads leading away from the city, in particular along the Via Appia heading south and the Via Salaria heading north. Some of these underground systems are enormous, with up to five levels and hundreds of rooms and passages.

The actual burials are predominantly Christian, although some Jewish ones have been identified, along with a few pagan ones as well. The typical method of burial was to carve out a rectangular niche in the wall of a room or funnel into which the body, wrapped in sheets, was placed. The opening was then sealed with earth, tiles, or a stone slab, which was often inscribed either with the name of the deceased or simply with a Christian symbol. Typically these niches were excavated in rows, one above the other, and the taller tunnels might have many layers of them reaching to the ceiling. The walls of some chambers were decorated with painted frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible or symbols from Chrisfian iconography. One common image is that of a banquet, which may be a reference to the Last Supper or to the tradition of holding a funeral feasf.

The catacombs stayed in active use from fhe first to around the fourth century ad, and a number of famous people, including the early popes, were buried in them. Although many of fhe artifacts they once contained have been removed over time, much still remains, and a number of catacombs, such as that of St. Callistus on the Appian Way, are open to visitors today.