, as had been promised by Christ, was triumphant -- but only after long struggles. In the Acts of the Apostles the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome is chronicled, and Paul's concluding words are, "Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen" (Acts 28:28). The Romans listened only after they subjected the Christians to persecution and martyrdom which, they believed, became necessary once the Christians simply refused to go away and continued to acquire converts no matter what was done to them. The initial response of the Romans had been to ignore the new religion and they believed they could afford to do so because , as can be seen from the remains of their culture and their history, they truly were supreme rulers of their portion of the world and had a great self-confidence to go with it.
The beauties of the art and architecture of the Roman world are undeniable. The museum itself is a reproduction of a house that was found buried under the lava from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The building was a large country house called the Villa dei Papiri after the papyrus scrolls that were found there. The reach of the Roman world is clear from the fact that most of the scrolls were the work of Philodemus of Gadara, "a town near the Sea of Galilee" and the house belonged to the family of his Roman pa
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