Christianity in Roman Empire
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Jesus Christ was born into a Roman world. As Luke tells us, "a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1). In the Romans' view, they and their possessions were the entire world. The Romans had gone on endless military campaigns to subdue their enemies and exert their influence in every accessible corner of the Mediterranean and European worlds. Then, in a similar but more peaceful fashion, Christ's followers went out to spread the word throughout the Roman Empire. It was not until they finally succeeded in acquiring the Roman Emperor Constantine as a convert to Christianity in A.D. 312 that the new religion triumphed and the history of the Western world was transformed. After that "the empire that Constantine ruled as a declared Christian, from 312 to 337, was profoundly different from the classical urban society" in which the early Christians labored (Brown 271). As they went out into the empire the Christians met a world that was, at first, uninterested in them and then, as their numbers grew, became extremely hostile to them. In viewing the collections of the Getty Museum many of the works of art there, as well as the building itself, provide some clues as to the kind of world the early Christians faced as they tried to show others the way. Some examples from the Getty collection will show the attractions that Roman ways had for the people, the way in which Roman religious ideas permeated the whole society, and the diffi
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n house to the cultural past, another feature connects it to the cultural future -- the basilica. Basilicas were usually public structures that were used as meeting halls in the cities. But many wealthy Romans had basilica-styles rooms in their homes and the basilica at the museum is copied from those found in various places. The details are from different Roman villas. The private basilicas may have been used as chapels in Roman homes. They consisted of an apse, a "vaulted semicircular space," with an anteroom that featured columns (Guide 65). The museum's reproduction includes eight marble columns that divide the basilica into a long wide space with two very narrow side aisles. This was "the plan that was adopted by the early Christians for their churches" (Guide 65).
Since the Christian religion was either unpopular or actually outlawed during the centuries before Constantine they met primarily in private homes. Though the new religion originally appealed to the poor because of the "gulf between the rich and the poor whom the rich exploited" it eventually extended its influence to the wealthier classes (Grant 82). The Christians would have seen such rooms in the houses of the wealthier classes or would have seen the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1907
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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