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  • 3 - The Roman empire

  • from Part I - The Political, Social and Religious Setting
  • Edited by Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago, Frances M. Young, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    19 January 2006, pp 69-84

  • Summary

    The Roman empire forms the broader political, social and religious context for the emergence of early Christianity. The path leading to Rome's imperial history was set by Gaius Julius Caesar, who was assassinated in 44 BCE by senators fearing that he was trying to become a new Roman king. Whereas, the very death of Jesus by crucifixion, a Roman capital punishment for slaves and non-Roman insurgents, demonstrates that the first century CE in Judaea was a time of unrest and conflict, too. Stoicism proved more congenial to the Romans, especially when concentrating on ethics. The importance of Graeco-Roman philosophy for early Christianity can be seen especially in two areas: the question of god, later called 'theology'. The first and second century CE saw the acme of Roman art and architecture which had developed through a blending of Etruscan and Italian with Greek and Hellenistic elements and which then was diffused from the capital through the cities of the empire.