Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire

Roman Rule of Israel

63 BCE

A last attempt to restore the former glory of the Hasmonean dynasty was made by Mattathias Antigonus.
Their defeat and death brought Hasmonean rule to an end.
The Land became a province of the Roman Empire.
In 37 BCE, Herod, a son-in-law of Hyrcanus II, was appointed King of Judea by the Romans.

Jesus of Nazareth

4 BCE

He was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically, although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the historical Jesus.
Jesus was a Galilean Jew who was baptized by John the Baptist.
Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God.

Paul of Tarsus

5

He was an apostle who taught the gospel of Christ to the first century world.
Paul is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.
Paul was dedicated to persecuting the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem.
He took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences.

The Great Fire of Rome

64

It caused widespread devastation.
People don't exactly know but rumors are spread that Nero sent men to set Rome of fire.
Nero sent out men to set fire to the city so he could rebuild it the way he wanted it to be.
Nero blamed the christians because their section was the only section not burned.

Perpetua

203

Vibia Perpetua was a married noblewoman.
She was a mother of an infant that she was nursing.
Felicity, a slave imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her.
Felicity, a slave imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her.

Great Persecution of 303 CE

303

The Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
The persecution varied in intensity across the empire, weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces.
The persecution failed to check the rise of the Church.
Although the persecution resulted in death, torture, imprisonment, or dislocation for many Christians, the majority of the empire's Christians avoided punishment.

Constantine the Great

306

Constantine enacted administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire.
Constantine pursued successful campaigns against the tribes on the Roman frontiers.
Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity.
He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared religious tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire.

Battle of Milvian Bridge

312

Took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius.
Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
The battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity.
Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle; his body was later taken from the river and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome on the day following the battle.

Edict of Milan

313

It's an agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire.
Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Milan and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians.
The Edict of Milan gave Christianity a legal status, but did not make Christianity the State church of the Roman Empire.
The Edict was in effect directed against Maximinus Daia, the Caesar in the East who was at that time styling himself as Augustus.

Emperor Theodosius

379

He was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire.
He was obliged to fight two destructive civil wars, successively defeating the usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius, not without material cost to the power of the empire.
He issued decrees that effectively made Nicene Christianity the official state church of the Roman Empire.
He neither prevented nor punished the destruction of prominent Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity.