Christian Roman Empire

To be a Christian during the time of the fall of the Roman Empire would not be a pleasant time to live. Christians believed in a higher power and devoted their lives, souls, and minds to God. And by doing this, they inevitably sealed their fate to be persecuted. Christianity began to rise slowly, but began to rise rapidly after the death of Jesus. The Romans had many problems with the Christians and they showed their anger by pursuing the Christian's faith, which proved to back fire because the Christian belief just grew stronger.

The problem with Christianity began with the conservative Romans and how they felt violated by Christian beliefs. Their main problem with the Christians was worshipping someone who had died but the kicker was rejecting the traditional Roman gods. Another problem with Christians was their concept of involving all classes of the social order, including slaves, women, and the poor, which shocked the Romans. Christianity appealed to the lower classes of people for the very reason that they were included. Women, slaves and the poor also were drawn to Christianity because they were taught that in God's eyes all sins were forgiven and all are equal. These beliefs are what drove Christians to give up their life to worshipping God. As it says in Sherman and Salisbury's book, "...Christian men and women were brought to the arena many died so bravely that some Roman spectators promptly converted" (The West and the World pg. 177). It was these kinds of displays that prompted non-believers to switch to Christianity. A moving story depicting this is found in the book Jesus Freaks. This book describes Christians and their struggle to stand up in what they believe in, in spite of being persecuted for it. The story that comes next happened in the Roman Coliseum around 391 A.D. In this tale, Telemachus, an old man stumbles upon gladiator games, which were banned seventy years ago by Constantine. He watches horrified by the bloody battle and interferes with the battle to stop them. So the story continues:

"Telemachus placed his hands on the chests of the two men, separating them, calling out "In the name of Christian, stop! Do not despise God's mercy in turning away the sword of your enemies by murdering one another!" The crowd was stunned for only moment before they cried out their anger at the old man. One of the gladiators hit the old man in the stomach but before Telemachus hit the ground he yelled, "In the name of Christ stop!" The crowd started chanting: "Down with him! Run him through! Get him!' and throwing rocks at Telemachus. One of the gladiators turned on him suddenly in the frenzy and drove his sword up to its hilt into the old man's stomach. With his last breath, Telemachus cried, "In the name of Jesus, stop!" He fell on his face and did not move again. No one said a word and no one stirred. Then one man got up and left...and slowly the trickle of people leaving grew and people made their way out of the Coliseum