Terry Foster
August 20, 2021
Professor DeGruccio
The Western Tradition
The Roman Empire and Religion
The Roman Empire, which lasted from 27 B.C. - 476 A.D. was one of the largest
empires and of the longest reign in history. While it was very dominant at its peak, there
was a lot of division that developed within the empire due to a lack of unity. While most
Romans followed their polytheistic religion, others began to spread throughout the
empire. Out of all of the factors that contributed to the empire falling, as shown in
Perpetua’s Journey, their loss of traditional values was one of the biggest. The Roman
Empire was very authoritarian and wanted everyone to follow specific social norms
which included many of them straying away from Christianity, in order to keep the
empire together.
The Romans widely opposed the spread of Christianity within the empire;
Christians were often arrested or even killed. When a fire started in Rome on July 18th in
64A.D. the emperor blamed Christians and the attacks against them got worse. This is
shown here on page #113, it shows, "The Roman historian Tacitus gives us some insight
into imperial Roman views on the Christians when he describes them as invisos or
"detested" because their conduct is atrocia, or “horrible” and pudenda, or shameful. He
then relates a macabre scene in which the Roman emperor Nero, who blamed the
