As the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, expanded, it came to include people from a variety of cultures, and religions. The worship of an ever increasing number of deities was tolerated and accepted. The government, and the Romans in general, tended to be tolerant towards most religions and religious practices."the traditional Roman policy, which tolerated all differences in the one loyalty" Philip Hughes, "History of the Church", Sheed & Ward, rev ed 1949, vol I chapter 6. " Some religions were banned for political reasons rather than dogmatic zeal,"Two exceptions there were to the Roman State's universal toleration or indifference. No cult would be authorised which was of itself "hostile" to the State; nor any which was itself exclusive of all others, The basis of these exceptions was, once more, political policy and not any dogmatic zeal". Philip Hughes, "History of the Church", Sheed & Ward, rev ed 1949, vol I chapter 6. and other rites which involved human sacrifice were banned.Religions of Rome: A History, Mary Beard, John A. North, S.R.F Price, Cambridge University Press, p. 234, 1998,
When Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire, it came to accept that it was the Roman emperor's duty to use secular power to enforce religious unity. Anyone within the church who did not subscribe to catholic Christianity was seen as a threat to the dominance and purity of the "one true faith" and they saw it as their right to defend this by all means at their disposal."The First Christian Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Early Church", Edited by Gillian Rosemary Evans, contributor Clarence Gallagher SJ, "The Imperial Ecclesiastical Lawgivers", p. 68, Blackwell Publishing, 2004, This led to persecution of pagans by the Christian authorities and populace after its institution as the state religion.
Under Roman Paganism
Religious tolerance and intolerance The Roman Empire typically tolerated other religions insofar as they conformed to Roman notions of what proper religion meant and if their deities could be mapped onto Roman deities. Otherwise, the Romans produced a series of persecutions of offending and nonconforming religions.
In the early 3rd century, Cassius Dio outlined the Roman imperial policy towards religious tolerance:
The Bacchanals
In 186 BC, the Roman senate issued a decree that severely restricted the Bacchanals, ecstatic rites celebrated in honor of Dionysus. Livy records that this persecution was due to the fact that "there was nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practiced among them" and that a "greater number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude of men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable".Livy, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/livy39.html Livy describes the Roman perceptions of the Bacchanals sect (which he shared) in his Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri (38.9-18), among these descriptions being:
On a bronze tablet found in Tiriolo, Italy in 1640, a Roman decree reads:
Druids Druids were seen as essentially non-Roman: a prescript of Augustus forbade Roman citizens to practice "druidical" rites. Pliny reportsPliny's Natural History xxx.4. that under Tiberius the druids were suppressed—along with diviners and physicians—by a decree of the Senate, and Claudius forbade their rites completely in 54 AD.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Life of Claudius paragraph 25 Druids were alleged to practice human sacrifice, a practice abhorrent to the Romans."The Britons", Christopher Allen Snyder, p. 52, Blackwell Publishing, 2003, Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) wrote "It is beyond calculation how great is the debt owed to the Romans, who swept away the monstrous rites, in which to kill a man was the highest religious duty and for him to be eaten a passport to health."
Judaism
Tiberius forbade Judaism in Rome, and Claudius expelled them from the city.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Life of Tiberius paragraph 36 However, the passage of Suetonius is ambiguous: "Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus he [Claudius] expelled them from the city".
The Crisis under Caligula (37–41) has been proposed as the "first open break between Rome and the Jews", but the problems were already evident during the Census of Quirinius in AD 6 and under Sejanus (before 31).H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, , The Crisis Under Gaius Caligula, pp. 254–256: "The reign of Gaius Caligula (37–41) witnessed the first open break between the Jews and the Julio-Claudian empire. Until then – if one accepts Sejanus' heyday and the trouble caused by the census after Archelaus' banishment—there was usually an atmosphere of understanding between the Jews and the empire ... These relations deteriorated seriously during Caligula's reign, and, though after his death the peace was outwardly re-established, considerable bitterness remained on both sides. ... Caligula ordered that a golden statue of himself be set up in the Temple in Jerusalem. ... Only Caligula's death, at the hands of Roman conspirators (41), prevented the outbreak of a Jewish-Roman war that might well have spread to the entire East."
After a series of Jewish–Roman wars (66–135), Hadrian changed the name of Judea province to Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina in an attempt to erase the historical ties of the Jewish people to the region.H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, , p. 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Iudaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature." In addition, after 70, Jews and Jewish proselytes were only allowed to practice their religion if they paid the Fiscus Judaicus, and after 135 were barred from Aelia Capitolina except for the day of Tisha B'Av.
Manichaeism The first official reaction and legislation against Manichaeism from the Roman state took place under Diocletian. In an official edict called the De Maleficiis et Manichaeis (302) compiled in the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum and addressed to the proconsul of Africa, Diocletian wrote
We have heard that the Manichaens [...] have set up new and hitherto unheard-of sects in opposition to the older creeds so that they might cast out the doctrines vouchsafed to us in the past by the divine favour for the benefit of their own depraved doctrine. They have sprung forth very recently like new and unexpected monstrosities among the race of the Persians - a nation still hostile to us - and have made their way into our empire, where they are committing many outrages, disturbing the tranquility of our people and even inflicting grave damage to the civic communities. We have cause to fear that with the passage of time they will endeavour, as usually happens, to infect the modest and tranquil of an innocent nature with the damnable customs and perverse laws of the Persians as with the poison of a malignant (serpent) ... We order that the authors and leaders of these sects be subjected to severe punishment, and, together with their abominable writings, burnt in the flames. We direct their followers, if they continue recalcitrant, shall suffer capital punishment, and their goods be forfeited to the imperial treasury. And if those who have gone over to that hitherto unheard-of, scandalous and wholly infamous creed, or to that of the Persians, are persons who hold public office, or are of any rank or of superior social status, you will see to it that their estates are confiscated and the offenders sent to the (quarry) at Phaeno or the mines at Proconnesus. And in order that this plague of iniquity shall be completely extirpated from this our most happy age, let your devotion hasten to carry out our orders and commands.Iain Gardner and Samuel N. C. Lieu, eds., Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 117–18.
Christianity
According to Jacob Neusner, the only religion in antiquity that was persistently outlawed and subject of systematic persecution was not Judaism, but Christianity.Jacob Neusner, A Life of Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai: Ca. I-80 C. E., Brill 1970 p.171 Christian martyrs were a significant part of Early Christianity, until the Peace of the Church in 313.
Suetonius mentions passingly that "[during Nero's reign p]unishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief" in so far as there are no crimes described.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Life of Nero paragraph 16
Tacitus reports that after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 some in the population held Nero responsibleTacitus, Annals XV.44 and that to diffuse blame, he targeted and blamed the Christians (or ChrestiansIn the earliest extant manuscript containing Annales 15:44, the second Medicean, the e in "Chrestianos", Chrestians, has been changed into an i; cf. Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz, Der historische Jesus: ein Lehrbuch, 2001, p. 89. "Chrestian" was a variant used for "Christian" in antiquity, as reported by Tertullian: "But ‘Christian,’ as far as its etymology goes, is derived from ‘anointing.’ And even when it is incorrectly pronounced by you ‘Chrestian’ (for not even is your acquaintance with the name accurate), it is formed from ‘sweetness’ or ‘kindness.’ In innocent men, therefore, even an innocent name is hated." (Apology, III)).
The Romans tended towards syncretism, seeing the same gods under different names in different places of the Empire. This being so, they were generally tolerant and accommodating towards new deities and the religious experiences of other peoples who formed part of their wider Empire."A History of the Church", Philip Hughes, Sheed & Ward, rev ed 1949, vol I chapter 6. This general tolerance was not extended to religions that were hostile to the state nor any that claimed exclusive rights to religious beliefs and practice. By its very nature the exclusive faith of the Jews and Christians set them apart from other people, but whereas the former group was in the main contained within a single national, ethnic grouping, the latter was active and successful in seeking converts for the new religion and made universal claims not limited to a single geographical area.
The Masoretic Text, the earliest surviving copy of which dates from the 9th century AD, teaches that "the Gods of the gentiles are nothing", the corresponding passage in the Greek Septuagint, used by the early Christian Church, asserted that "all the gods of the heathens are devils.""The Greek Septuagint translated into English", Psalm 95:5 (96:5 in Hebrew-based translations - see Psalms#Numbering), translated by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851. Jerome would follow the Greek text rather than the Hebrew when he translated the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible. The "devils" epithet would still appear in bibles until the end of the 20th century when the consensus reverted to the original Hebrew text for modern translations The same gods whom the Romans believed had protected and blessed their city and its wider empire during the many centuries they had been worshipped were now demonizedA modern Christian writes that the gods of the pagans are "in fact fallen angels (otherwise known as devils) ... And that is what the pagans, then as now, serve as "gods" ", Roy H. Schoeman, "Salvation is from the Jews", Ignatius Press, 2003, by the early Christian Church.The modern Church takes a much less antagonistic stance to non-Abrahamic faiths. see Dignitatis humanae and Nostra aetate