What attracts you to Late Rome?

[Nathan Ross]

Constantine co-opted the iconography and symbols of pagan religions and turned them into symbols of Christianity... all the various aspect of Christian doctrine/dogma were already found in other religions that existed at that time.

The degree to which Constantine consciously 'co-opted' elements of traditional religious practice is one of those eternal debates, and highly contentious. Pre-Christian Roman religion was not a unified monolithic system of belief, but a highly adaptable combination of state and private rituals, foreign borrowings, philosophies and cultic mysteries that evolved over the centuries. By the end of the third century popular devotion was approaching an idea of monotheism; you only need to look at the prayer issued by the (pagan) Licinius to his (pagan) army before his battle with Maximinus Daia in 313: addressed to an unnamed 'Supreme God', it appears to us now as Christian in all but name.

By the fourth century, Christianity was actually very close to what traditional 'paganism' had become. So rather than being alien or revolutionary, it seemed very familiar.

This is one of my favorite reads on the topic

It is good. Stephenson is one of the most approachable, and least partisan, of the recent writers on Constantine. His idea that Christianity flourished because of its care for the poor in times of plague is a bit debatable, as is his notion that the emperor adopted 'Victor' as a personal name. But for a good popular survey it's hard to beat.