In the ancient Roman Empire, they used to massacre Christians in the hundreds because they wouldn't sacrifice animals to the Roman Gods. Now in the movie 'Gladiator' they still worshipped their Gods (around 100 AD or so) and in 'King Arthur' they were Christians (around 4-500 AD) so I'm wondering what happened? Why did they convert?

drloki

The conversion from the Roman Pantheon to Christianity came after the Roman Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome. This also led to the formation of the Roman-Catholic Church Apr 11 06, 2:58 PM

Arpeggionist

Or, more accurately, after Constantine's conversion he abolished the persecution of the Christians. He continued to persecute heathens and Jews. Apr 11 06, 3:19 PM

mementoflash

This is an interesting article on the subject: http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Mediterranean/ConstanChrist.html At first Constantine did not persecute Pagans but did much to respectfully encourage their conversion. Later, however, he did get a bit nasty towards them. Apr 11 06, 4:19 PM

lanfranco

It's worth pointing out that one reason Constantine decided to offer legalization and toleration to Christians via the Edict of Milan in 313 was that substantial numbers of Romans had already converted. (He himself seems not to have converted officially until he was near death in 337 CE.) There are also reasons to believe that Constantine felt that promoting Christianity would contribute to the political stability of the Empire, and once the Emperor had adopted this religion as the one he seemed to prefer and patronize, other Romans followed. As for why Romans were attracted to Christianity before the Edict, that's a vast subject. However, Romans had been taking an interest in eastern mystery cults for a long time, possibly because the official state religion had come to seem spiritually bankrupt and primarily politically symbolic. There had also been serious interest in Judaism among Gentiles since the early 1st century, at least. Much about Judaism was quite attractive to people seeking a more intense religious experience than Roman polytheism offered. However, Christianity seemed to offer that experience without requiring converts to be circumcised or to follow specific dietary and other laws, a bone of contention between some early Jewish Christians and missionaries like St. Paul. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_and_Christianity Apr 11 06, 4:21 PM

kaylofgorons

Christians were massacred in the thousands, not just hundreds. They were often killed in horrific ways, as well, and not just slaughtered. Apr 11 06, 5:15 PM

Baloo55th

For the same reasons that a lot of Germans joined the Nazi Party, a lot of Soviet citizens joined the Communist Party, and peoples of North Africa became Moslems. 'Cuius regio, eius religio' was established as a principle in the Holy Roman Empire after the battles over the Reformation, but it has world-wide applications. If your King (Party Secretary / Great Leader / Grand Panjandrum) is a whatever, it pays you to be one too if you want to get anywhere in life. Or in some cases, to keep your life... There are exceptions: Henri of Navarre famously remarked 'Paris vaut une messe' and 'converted' to Roman Catholicism to make sure of the French throne, and in India there were cases of Moslem rulers with Hindu subjects and vice versa. As to Rome, in the main the Roman administration was tolerant of most religious groups. The Jews and their offshoot Christians were particularly obstreperous and wouldn't fit in with general tolerance, being extremely intolerant themselves. The business of treating the Emperor as a god was no more than saluting the flag or making the scout sign, and very few people actually believed that he was one (a god, that is, not a flag). Occasional Emperors did believe that they were gods, but usually were helped on their way to the heavens or wherever fairly soon. Apr 12 06, 4:10 AM

peasypod

The Roman Empire officially became Christian in 380 AD when Theodosius (the Great) and co-emperor Gratian published the famous edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria. Before this, the Christian religion was supported and promoted. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14577d.htm Apr 12 06, 6:06 AM