How was Constantine able to make Christianity palatable to the Romans as Christians faced persecution during his time?

How was Constantine able to make Christianity palatable to the Romans as Christians faced persecution during his time?

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Well for starters, he was the fuckin' emperor.

not every people in the empire converted

building a new capitol around it helps

The majority of the legions were already Christian at this time. Constantine just saw the writing on the wall.

Proofs?

Just to add to whatever people post:
It seems like a lot of Pagan cultures just didn't give that many fucks when it came to who's god they worshipped. If they were told to change they weren't going to risk getting crucified over something like that especially when they didn't have the concept of hell for not worshipping a god.
Im not saying all pagans were like that, after all the olympics lasted for hundreds upon hundreds of years, temples were maintained for centuries, military cults were very dangerous and powerful, and religion did spark riots, however it just seems like a lot of Pagan peoples, such as those of the Greek/Mediterranean and Mesopotamian pantheon didnt seem to be that stuck in their ways.

I have no idea how applicable this is, since I am

A) Drunk off my ass
B) More knowledgeable about Egyptian religious stuff than European stuff

But often times, the cultic practices proved more enduring than the gods they worshiped with them. You could have some cult that sacrificed a bunch of pigs on the first day of spring every year to the crocodile god, and then when the men of Nekhen came along and forced everyone to worship Horus the Falcon god, well by golly, time to sacrifice a bunch of pigs on the first day of spring to him every year! (And also, Horus was really the crocodile god). That sort of syncretism happened all the time, and it wouldn't surprise me that it happened in proto-Christian Europe.

They weren't though. Studies have shown that Rome was only 10-25% Christian. And with an even more barbarized army, the armies would've likely been less Christian than the empire overall.

>it wouldn't surprise me that it happened in proto-Christian Europe
Of course it did. There's a reason why so many christian festivities and local religious practices have pagan origins.

Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire is a meme.

Was Constantine Erdogan of Rome?

Not in any sense that I can think off, up to the point that he was an actual emperor, rather than an emperor wannabe.

By destroying pagan temples, also Rome only became Christian slowly after many emperors made it illegal, then outright banned paganism under threat of execution
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_pagans_in_the_late_Roman_Empire

Christianity was already popular by the time of Constantius (Please stop calling him "Constantine", that's some Anglo made up nonsense). It was popular among the troops which is why he made them put a Christian symbol on their shields and claimed that he had seen a miracle.

>Constantius (Please stop calling him "Constantine", that's some Anglo made up nonsense).
His name was literally Constantinus...

By announcing the council of nicea in which the biblical canon was debated to fit so that as many people as possible would convert.

Constantine is not responsible for this. He's commonly mistaken with Theodosius I in this regard. Constantine did not mandate that Christianity was now the official state religion of Rome, he was merely the first emperor to convert to Christianity. Theodosius is responsible for making Christianity the state religion and neither persecuting those responsible for the destruction of Greco-Roman pagan temples, nor preventing it in the first place.

You have to see it like this. The persecutions MADE the Roman people sympathise far more with Christianity, and pushed what had been a pretty marginal urban cult into a movement with massive exposure.

I never said he did ban it, but Constantine did deface a lot of pagan temples by decree

>The persecutions MADE the Roman people sympathise far more with Christianity
>This is what Christcucks believe unironically
Yes I'm sure it had nothing to do with banning other religions and destroying pagan temples

Christianity was already palatable to the Romans since at least the time of the five good emperors, mystery cults spoke to the spiritual yearning of post-hellenic antiquity and the philosophy of stoicism is basically Christianity without a story or meaning attached to it. I'd argue that Rome when it transitioned to imperial government was readymade for an eastern style state religion Christianity was at the right place at the right time.

>outsider barbarians.
>not more likely to accept a foreign religion with egalitarian undertones.

Christianity targets poor people and the military targets poor people.

>Barbarized armies
>Not Christian

>Convert

Allegedly. One person claimed he converted on his death bed and the person wasn't even in the room when it happened but wrote it down like 40 years later.

There is no other indication Constantine converted to Christianity.

What studies? Theres no way an emperor would've made it a state religion if they weren't at least half of the population

Cont.
As imperial powers grew the aristocratic class in Rome and many other cities were treated as a nuisance and their privileges hollowed out. This combined with the "globalization" of the empire meant that: 1. Families who cared about local cults and priesthoods lost power 2. People who cared about local cults were displaced. 3. The gap between rich and poor got bigger and bigger.

Of the many cults that thrived on these processes Christianity was the lucky one. But it also had some essential things going for it primarily the principles of welfare wich bound the lower classes to it and the value it placed asceticism wich spoke to a people plagued by crises and strife.

Constantine didn't make Christianity the state religion, he just ended persecution.

>Most authorities agree that by 300 A.D., between seven and ten percent of the population of the Roman Empire were Christian

Freeman, Charles. A New History of Early Christianity p. 227

>This is what Christcucks believe unironically

I'm not Christian. Even Tacitus himself mentions it, while personally disliking Christians.

Also, you're factually off the mark in thinking that other religions were banned and temples destroyed en-masse in the reign of Constantine. Serious anti-pagan measures only really began in the reigns of his immediate successors who were raised as Christians.

Sounds like a load of bull from a biased book. Again why popularize an un popular religion if not even a tenth of the people follow it.

People don't always act rationally

Not him but it's been the consensus among historians for a long time. It is good to be critical on the ground that you bring up ofcourse. I look at it this way: Christians were being persecuted so people were not likely to risk actually converting but they still might have enjoyed welfare from Christian communities and admired them for their bravery.

Yeah im still not buying it. Especially from an author whose most famous book is about how he thinks christianity stunted intellectual growth until the 1300s

Keith Hopkins in a World full of Gods argues the same it's not at all a controversial opinion.

>Christians didn't stunt western intellectual growth.

Who burned down the library of Alexandria again?

>Who burned down the library of Alexandria again?
Julius Caesar.

Christiany was not a poor mans religion in the Roman Empire. It primarily spread through wealthy, urban centers. It was a middle class religion at best.

Nah he just (accidentally) burned the harbour storerooms senpai no original works were lost.

Guys stop calling it Rome that's just some Anglo shit, it's actually Roma

Sorry great library doesn't even exist when Christian's live

At least there are records of him causing damage to the books, which is more than you have with the Christians.

This is a pretty silly misunderstanding of ancient religions. Half of the Roman Empire was never the same religion at any point. You think random peasants in Anatolia followed the Roman pantheon? Adopting a propagating a state religion is not tied to persecution of non-members, there would hardly be any unrest from people not favoring the imperial cult and hard traditionalists. With Christianity being popular among people who actually mattered (bureaucrats, middle class, military officers) it was far more useful to convert to than mere population statistics would indicate.

What? Because it spread trough urban centers of commerce it was middle class? that is actually were most poor people could be found too. The first converts were jewish who must have had very low status and the persecution meant that converting would mean having a lot to loose, doesn't sound like a middle class thing.

The urbanization of the Roman Empire wasn't exactly high, most poor people were in the countryside. It's somewhat unbelievable a cult taking off only in places with wealthy people wasn't converting substantive amounts of them. Iirc it's quite well recorded to have taken off with the upper classes in Alexandria and North Africa particularly. Persecution of Christianity was very on and off, usually localized.