The Impact of the Roman Empire on Religious Systems
How often do you think about the Roman Empire? What do you think of from the Roman Empire?
For some it’s architecture, road systems and aqueducts. Others think of the military might and ability to expand their borders from a principality on hills along the river to a super power across Europe and the Mediterranean. Perhaps it's the famous love story between Cleopatra and Marc Anthony in the wake of Caesar's assassination in Rome. There are many nuances of Rome, its impact and culture throughout the 500 years of prestige. My portion of Roman Empire fascination is from the mass conversion from the historic polytheistic (worship of many gods/goddesses, also known as paganism) to monotheism and worship of a single Christian God. Emperor Constantine converted himself and the empire to Christianity in 312 ACE and I believe this was the beginning of accepted stigma to those who retained their historic and cultural religious beliefs.
There are some arguments on whether this conversion was done in true faith and belief in the religion of a single God and the son of God Jesus Christ, or if this conversion was an attempt to keep control of the imperial cult. Rome had been built upon the belief that their gods favored them and the empire, that their successful conquering and campaigns were their divine will. As the wave of Christianity grew, the former popular religious lens became a minority belief. This conversion had major consequences throughout the Empire, which at the time spanned from the British Isles, North Africa, most of Europe and into the Near East (modern day Turkey, Syria, Iraq,Palestine, Israel, and Jordan). The cultural religions that worshiped many gods and goddesses became criminalized; their temples torn down, iconography destroyed, and their believers took their public practices into private. Two images in particular that resonate with me are the Wiccans/Pagans from the British Isles and the Greek Pantheon as I closely align my practice with those teachings.
When Christianity became the imperial religion, it exposed groups of people to it for the first time in a sweeping manner. On the same hand, without the state influencing or promoting other religions it began the road to stigma around the polytheistic and nature-based religions. The Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire centuries later where monarchs would bow to the Pope and Catholicism and the true persecution of witches and non-christians reached a fever-pitch. I think it’s important to highlight that these belief systems and religions were never always the minority. History is an important lens to understand some of the driving forces of belief systems and how they are spread across the globe. Nothing happens in a vacuum and we still feel the effects centuries and millennia after this pivotal event.
