The Roman Diocletian and the Christian Church

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the Christians were singled out because they rejected the everyday, pagan lifestyle of Rome; no one likes the outcasts of a social order. The author points out that the Jews were allowed to live peacefully because they were perceived as a national, cultural heritage, which Rome had learned to tolerate, but the Christian church raised the ire of Rome because of its evangelistic efforts. The paper states that Diocletian, Pliny, and those who persecuted the Christian church for decades did not realize that their efforts to destroy a small sect only served as a catalyst to strengthen and harden the church's resolve to expand its influence throughout the Roman world.

From the Paper:

"As the power was divested among the different provinces and between the sometimes cooperative, sometimes competitive leaders, the sense of absolute ruler was slipping away. In the Eastern territory, possibly because of its distance from Rome, Diocletian took steps to firmly establish his reign. The Roman emperor has always walked a fine line between secular authority and assumed divine inspiration. The pantheon of Roman gods and goddesses was slowly evolving to include the emperor, and his divine royalty. In the west, the consulship became the personal power block of a narrow circle of aristocratic Roman families. In the East, the office tended to be monopolized by emperors, or used by them to reward both military and civic service."

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