Rome\'s 3 biggest mistakes.

[Timotheus]

Well, despite my pagan affiliations, I certainly didn't want to lead this into an anti-Christian tirade. That's why I initially didn't address the comment about Christianity, and also why I was careful to address "the Christianity of the time" -- which was significantly different from modern Christianity.

Hey, some of my best friends are Christians.

And your point about intolerance is well made, though I will point out the difference of exclusivity: in many cases Christians -- and sometimes Jews -- were persecuted for refusing to acknowledge the divinity of a god, someone else's god. In essence, it's a statement that, "Our god is real, yours is fake." Most of those persecuting simply wanted an acknowledgement, and they weren't trying to say the god of the Jews/Christians wasn't real. The Romans were usually very liberal about accepting other gods -- Greek, Egyptian, Etruscan, more -- usually they'd just give them a Latinized name and put up a temple somewhere.

The attitude that, "Your gods are not real," can only be taken as an attack on someone's faith, and that's what caused the resentment.

Of course, there was that little thing about Nero blaming Christians for the fire of 64, and their apocalyptic preaching didn't help matters -- it sounded like they were just cheering for Rome to fall, hoping it would usher in the Kingdom of God. Kinda like my mother's faith now...

It may seem like a small point but I can see people being more tolerant of their Gods being laughed at then having them being denied completely.

I can say haha you worship Bubba your a goof and you may just decide I am an ignorant fool.

Now if I go further and instead say haha you worship Bubba, he doesnt even exist only my God Ferd exists and your much more inclined I would bet to stick your favorite knife in me.