With over 900 churches in Rome alone, it’s no surprise that the word Italy has such strong connotations of religion. It was thought that the Romans had a religion that was unique to them although it was thought that these did not come from a single source, but instead they were a mixture of the beliefs, traditions and superstitions of those in power and a number of other providers.
As the city grew and became more developed, the views that the leaders had, slowly became part of everyday beliefs. At the very beginning, Rome had no religious structures or places to worship the spirits/ gods they believed in. It was the Etruscan kings who first built such buildings around 500 BC.
When Christianity roughly began in the year AD 1, The leaders of Rome had priests who were in charge of the religious sites of Palestine but it took them a while to figure out how they were going to continue form here. It was a difficult decision to make because the new Christians would not participate in the worship of Caesar.
After some difficult times between the Romans, the Christians and the Jews, it wasn’t until 260 AD that Christianity became tolerated and then it wasn’t until 380 AD that Christianity became the official religion thanks to emperor Theodosius. This wasn’t the only religion that was available. As the empire the Romans were creating was to continue expanding, so would the many number of people that have been conquered and into the mixing pot went all their Gods and many religious beliefs.
The ideas that were set out by the Christians spread quickly around the city, and the common languages that were spoken (Empire, Latin and Greek) throughout the area, helped make this process a lot faster. The base for many Roman soldiers around this time was usually Britain so this helped the word of the Christians spread over seas. If it wasn’t for the Roman Empire, some say Christianity may not have spread so fast or even at all!
If you plan to take a trip to Italy to find out more information on the history of Christianity and the Roman Empire, make sure you find out first what hotels in Rome are close to the historic areas you would like to visit.
