Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire

Roman Rule of Israel (begins)

6

Judea was ruled by a Roman procurator who managed its political, military, and fiscal affairs. Its governmental structure was reorganized by Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria from 57 to 55 B.C.E., who divided the country into five synhedroi, or administrative dis­tricts.

Jesus of Nazareth

30

One of the farthest corners of the Roman Empire, Judaea was a land of ancient traditions and religious fervor. Decades of Roman rule were causing ever more resentment. Jesus was born to a family from a village called Nazareth, near the Sea of Galilee. As he was growing up, Judaea was collapsing into chaos.

Paul of Tarsus

62

Paul was a historical figure who set the tone for Christianity. It was Paul, and not Jesus, whose writing emphasized celibacy and the theory of divine grace and salvation, and it was Paul who eliminated the circumcision requirement. It was Paul who used the term euangelion, 'the gospel' in connection with the teaching of Christ

the great fire of rome

64

The great fire of Rome breaks out and destroys much of the city on this day in the year 64. Despite the well-known stories, there is no evidence that the Roman emperor, Nero, either started the fire or played the fiddle while it burned. Still, he did use the disaster to further his political agenda. but the Christians mention fate during the fire their saying that it was destined that the fire didn't hit us they said god was protecting them from the fire

Perpetua

203

Vibia Perpetua was a married noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant she was nursing. Felicity, a slave imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

Battle of Milvian Bridge

312

Roman politics after the Emperor Diocletian abdicated in AD 305 was confusingly complicated as emperors and deputy emperors of the West and of the East contended for power. Among them was Flavius Valerius Constantinus, known to history as Constantine the Great.

Edict of Milan

313

The Edict of Milan was a letter signed by the Roman emperors Constantine and Licinius, that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire. The letter was issued in February, 313 AD, shortly after the emperor Diocletian and stopped the unfair treatment of Christians.

Constantine the Great

337

Constantine I was born circa 280 in Naissus, Moesia (now Niš, Serbia). His father became the Western Roman emperor in 305; after his father's death, Constantine fought to take power. He became the Western emperor in 312 and the sole Roman emperor in 324. Constantine was also the first emperor to adhere to Christianity. He issued an edict that protected Christians in the empire and converted to Christianity on his deathbed in 337. people think I started/ordered the fire of rome.

Emperor Theodosius

379

One historian noted that this son of an emperor killed for high treason "veered disconcertingly between opposites—febrile activity and indolent sluggishness, a simple soldierly life and the splendors of the court." But this little-known emperor forever changed the course of Christian history not in one way, but in two. He used his power to officially enforce orthodox Christianity, but ended up placing his power under that of the church, setting a standard for more than a millennium.