How Christianity conquered the Roman empire

The Roman Empire was home to a multitude of religious cults in the first century AD. However, only one Christianity. Rose to global domination. But why?

That's a question that Tim Whitmarsh sets out to answer in his latest book, Rome's Age of Revolution. And in this episode of the History Extra podcast, Tim talks Spencer Mizin through a story that encompasses Christian entrepreneurs, Greek intellectuals, and the surprising parallels between Jesus and the Emperor Augustus. Hi Tim. It's great to have you on the History Extra podcast today. You've got a new book out. It's called Rome's Age of Revolution. One thing that really jumped out at me when reading it was just how important Augustus, the the brutal, brilliant first Roman Emperor, was to the rise of Christianity in the first century AD, So With that in mind, I wonder if you could start by

describing the revolution that Augustus initiated when he came to power. And I wonder also if you could Explain why that revolution created conditions that would prove so fertile to the growth of Christianity. Yes, thank you. That's the key question. Now, with Augustus when we talk about him coming to power, we have to be careful here because in a sense he didn't really come to power. He's remembered as the first Roman Emperor, but he that was never a title that he took. The Roman Republic was coming to an end, but But he tried to present himself as continuing the Roman Republic and as just as somebody who just happened to have vast amounts of what he called authority, not power, not power, but authority in his lap.

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