Thread by @cbkwgl

I will start posting some tidbits on early days of Christianity. Tells much about the rise of the religion.
A Roman Triumph is not just another victory but utter decimation and public humiliation of the enemy. The Triumph of Christianity is used exactly in the same note.

At a time in which parchment was scarce, many ancient writers were simply erased, scrubbed away so that their pages could be reused for more elevated themes. Naturally, what they didn't like was discarded - it is estimated almost 99% of the literature of Rome was lost.

Christianity was the first time religion entered private space in history. From food to bed, everything was covered. Because it is not easily possible to monitor everything, people were exhorted to spy on their neighbours. Punishing is not cruelty. Punishing is to save sinners.

The word Pagan means a civilian - a non-soldier. Because pagans were enlisted into Christ's Army, Christians were originally called Pagans. As time went by, the word took a derisive meaning and denoted the "rustic and backward" non-believer.

Demonology stressed on a single point - a person cannot sin. It's the demons which will make you sin. On one side, this removed the moral responsibility of ot committing a crime and on the other side, allowed one to freely admit his crime.

As Christianity gained strength, the Christian elders declared demons had created the entire Greco-Roman religious system so that ‘they may procure for themselves a proper diet of fumes and blood offered to their statues and images’. Even coming in contact with them pollutes you.

The binarization of religion is seen for the first time - Christians were saved; others were not. Christians were correct; other religions were wrong. More than that they were sick, insane, evil, damned, inferior and disgusting.

A new interpretation came over intolerance towards non-believers. To allow another person to remain outside the Christian faith was not to show praiseworthy tolerance. It was to damn them. To oppose another man’s religion is not intolerance but is virtue.

The Triumph of Christianity is seen as strepitus mundi, the ‘roar of the world’ – the roar of the advancing Christendom, unstoppable as a tide across countries and continents.

Many early philosophers like Galen, Celsus and others noted one important point with the Christians - dominance of faith over proof. Galen said over Moses, "It is his method in his books, to write without offering proofs, saying “God commanded, God spake"

Celsus noted as early as 175 AD and Gibbon pondered over it - the role of Christianity in destruction of Rome. "how far the purer morals of the genuine and more active Christians may have compensated...for the secession of such numbers into inactive and unproductive celibacy"

When Christianity gained supremacy, Atomists, who said there is no god and everything is but arrangement of atoms, were specifically targeted. "it weakened mankind’s terror of divine punishment and Hell". Except for a chance escape of a single copy, not one book survived.

Celsus noted, Christians were frowned upon was because they "let no one educated, no one wise, no one sensible draw near. For these abilities are thought by us to be evils." For this, he quotes the Genesis in Ovid's Metamorphases which is almost identical to the one in Bible.

While Christianity saw the Roman Officers as agents of devil enticing them to break their religious vows, for the Romans, it's nothing more than an effort to do everything to avoid execution of a prisoner.

"A life full of sins here but a luxurious life in the afterlife" or
as Bernard Shaw observes “martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability” seems to be the main philosophy behind martyrology.

St Augustine said the circumcellions "lived as bandits, die as circumcellions, and are honoured as martyrs”. There were massive celebrations of the deaths of their martyrs – with drinking, dancing and everything to such obscene levels that even other Chrisitans frowned upon them.

Though Palmyra was destroyed even before, destruction of Serapeum was the turning point in the history of Christianity. Serapeum and along with it, the remnants of the Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed and a shocked populace converted en masse out of fear or fled the city

Seemingly secular modern writers like Peter Brown brushed off these acts as a retaliation for the persecution they faced in the hands of non-Christians. According to them, "recently emerged from widespread persecution. It was not a situation likely to breed tolerance of others"

Celsus was the first one who said Jesus was born to a Roman soldier Panthera. It is not surprising to note that all the early criticisms of Christianity - Celsus, Poryphyry and others are targeted with special care. What is known of them is from the criticism of their works.

Zosimus writes that Constantine murdered his wife by boiling her in a bath tub and the traditional clergy expressed their helplessness in cleansing him of his sin. A Christian Egyptus offered to help him if he converts to Christianity.

Eunapius writes,"not only conquered but stole them as well...military tactics were to ensure that the thief should escape detection. Only the floor of the temple of Serapis they did not take, simply because of the weight of the stones which were not easy to move from their place"

We hear of many Christian martyrs in Rome before Christianity is accepted. Do we know of any Pagan martyrs after Christianity is accepted?

The discovery of Khajuraho and in 1838 and Pompeii between 1750 and 1850 led the Christians to was one of the first challenges to the Christian censorship imposed upon the world. The swift imposition of Victorian morality is but an expected reaction to it.

Christianity's answer to Ovid was Clement's Paedagogus, whose aim was to "compendiously describe what the man who is called a Christian ought to be during the whole of his life" focussing on everything from what to eat to what to do on bed with the threat of divine punishment.

Some scholars look at the concept of monks as 'white martyrdom'. When the Romans refused to gift the Church martyrs, the monks fulfilled the purpose - punishing themselves that severely and slowly that they slowly gained martyrdom though the isolation led to

depression related deaths more than any piety. Delirious hallucinations due to hunger, loneliness and depression were considered to be visions. "“One monk saw a dragon in a lake; another slew a basilisk. Another saw the Devil himself sitting at his window.”

When Shenoute plundered Gesois's private shrine and was accused of breaking law, he replied "there is no crime for those who have christ". But, severe punishment is inflicted for breaking the rules of his Monastery. His is one of the first cases of church running a parallel govt.

Holy Violence of Justinian hinged on "if he did not punish them, God would punish him." The moral code which Chrysostom and others prescribed was extended to the society and the administration and church was tasked with spying on citizens to enforce the moral code.

Another sanction for violence is "Pagan Error". How can a Christian tolerate a person erring? He should be corrected even if it means breaking law. It was not about harming them but saving them from eternal damnation.

A Christian Saint presided over this.
"waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church...where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs...burnt them."

"Gospels of the old Latin Bible were written in a distinctly demotic style and the sort of words that grated on educated ears. In the Roman society, the language of the Bible was deeply embarrassing." Naturally, how can one be more better than the Bible to read?

Destruction of impartiality of history. Eusebius:
I saw with my own eyes...pastors of the churches hiding disgracefully...others suffered the indignity of being held up to ridicule by their enemies...I am determined therefore to say nothing even about those who have been tempted

by the persecution or have made complete shipwreck of their salvation...I shall include in my overall account only those things by which...may benefit. Let me therefore proceed from this point to describe in outline the hallowed ordeals of the martyrs of God’s word.”

St Jerome
After many nights spent in vigil, after floods of tears called from my inmost heart in recollection of my past sins, I would once more take up Plautus. And when at times I returned to my right mind and began to read the prophets, their style seemed rude and repellent.

Immediately after the the removal of the Altar of Victory by Gratian in 382, Roman Army saw it’s worst defeat in Europe in almost 400 years at Adrionople where the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens is killed. Rome itself was sacked by the Visigoths in 410.

Western Roman Empire, which controlled Rome ended in 476 AD. A part of this is because of Gratian’s closeness to the Gauls and Scythians as against the old order. Also, the loss of influence of Ausonius leading to removal of the Altar of Victory made him unpopular in the Senate.

Possibly with the rising Christian influence, the Senate refused to send troops as well as release money for the military affairs of the West. A combination of all these led to a Roman General Magnus Maximus rebelling and marching on Gaul from Britain. Gratian was delivered to

one of the rebel generals to avoid sack of Lyon and was executed. The empire didn’t see peace till it eventually ended in 476. Thus, we would see that the desecration of the Altar of Victory showed immediate impact to the Roman Empire which eventually leading to it’s fall.

Senate stopping funding can be timed with the rise of Theodosius after the death of Eugenius at the Battle of Frigidus. Eugenius's personal religious affiliation is not known but he restored the Altar of Victory, partly a reason for Theodosius rejecting his claim to the throne.

"Much of what is found in sections 17-31 is puzzling. Ambrose seems to be attributing to Symmachus statements not found in the Relatio." In spite of the claims of excellent education of Ambrose, one would see that his arguments don't stand a leg before that of Symmachus.

The penchant for breaking law
Augustine: If God’s law diverged from Roman law, then the Heavenly City and its inhabitants were compelled ‘to dissent, and to become obnoxious to those who think differently’

Compare this fifth century ditty with what Kashgari wrote over Khotan.
“And those shameful things,
demons and idols,
and defiled things made with hands
in the land of the Egyptians
our good saviour trampled down
all together
and set up in their place a holy pillar”

Kashgari:
We came down on them like a flood!
We went out among their cities!
We tore down the idol-temples,
We shat on the Buddha's head!

However, mere decapitation of the idol is not enough. The demon should be cast off from the idol and for that, the idol should be destroyed as well as insulted. The nose was cut off, the helmet broken, the smooth surface was scalped and the altar was sliced off at the base.

The non-Christians were quick to learn – when they noticed the lust of the Chrisitians for plunder, they started adding additional detail into their statues so that their statues will atleast survive as pieces of art in the house of a wealthy Christian and not destroyed.

Hinting about the seriousness of the devastation the early church wrought, it is theorized that Hitler simply used what John Chrysostom said over Jews to shape his ideology.

A part of this is because Jesus is a Jew and that too, he came from the House of David – how can he be not anyone but a Jew? Forced erasure of Jewism is but the quickest option they have got. If the pre-Christian religions were a target in general, Jews were targets in specific.

One of the first failures of Roman justice system was when Emperor Theodosius I was forced to cancel the compensation declared on the destruction of a synagogue at Callinicum in 388 on pressure from the church.

Libanius, Palladas and many others burnt their own books in mortal fear during the purges.

sixth century only ‘scraps’ of two manuscripts by...Juvenal survive and mere ‘remnants’ of two others, one by the Elder and one by the Younger Pliny...next century there survives nothing save a single fragment of the poet Lucan. From the start of the next century: nothing at all.

"Who is today’s head of the Stoic heresy? Who is safeguarding the teachings of the Peripatetics? […] For the whole earth under the sun has been filled with sermons."

Christian ascetics practiced alousia, “the state of being unwashed.” Thirteen-year-old St. Agnes died in 304 AD having never taken a bath, and St. Fintan of Clonenaugh was said to bathe once annually, just before Easter. St. Anthony never washed his feet his entire life, and

St. Francis of Assisi thought “dirtiness” a sign of holiness. In the sixth century, St. Benedict didn’t bathe during his seven-year pilgrimage through France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, for which he earned the honorific “The Great Unwashed.”

Eunapius described the Christian monks as, “men in appearance but led the lives of swine, and openly did and allowed countless unspeakable crimes. But this they accounted piety, to show contempt for things divine."

Monks resided outside the cities and were generally poor and illiterate – and some of them are even slaves. This is fine till the owners of slaves are not Christians. But, when Christianity became the main religion, this has got a potential to disrupt the whole economic fabric.

A Bishop was excommunicated for encouraging slaves to flee their masters for salvation in deserts, and the Canon of the Holy Synod clearly said, “We shall never, allow such a thing, which brings sorrow to the masters to whom the slaves belong and which is a disrupting influence.”

Solitary life in deserts out of human contact took it’s toll. What they called“Monks needed to be in the desert for here, they knew, was where the demons swarmed and gathered” is nothing more than delirious delusions. Some saw dragons,some slew basilisks,some wrestled with demons

Under Justinian, civil officials had to enforce laws about what went on in private homes. Church officials acted as de facto spies. Delatores were forced to spy on Romans and not enemies. Men of all ranks were required to become informers. Any breach of laws was to be reported.

Matthew 26:52: Sheathe the Sword
Circumcellions: Let's use clubs.
Using the cry ‘Laudes Deo’ – ‘Praise the Lord’, they called themselves Israels and spread sheer terror on the streets, attacking non-believers with their clubs.

Damascius fled Athens and revived the philosophy there once Alexandria became unlivable. But, when orders are passed banning philosophy, he and six others fled to Persia. They didn't like the situation there and wanted to go back. Shahanshah Khusrau obliged them by allowing

Damascius into putting a clause into the treaty with Justinian giving the philosophers imperial protection. Harrian School was the consequence. There was an attempted purge during Maurice but it failed. The area was ultimately converted by Caliph Al Mamun.

Angry at the ungodly act of providing protection to the pagan philosophers, an angry Justinian sent an army under a Persian deserter Nasres to destroy the Roman temples at Philae and Augila

Early Timeline of Christian Rome. The speed with which tolerance turned to intolerance is fascinating
312 – Constantine converts to Christianity
324 – Non-Christian sacrifices banned for Governors
341 – Sacrifices were banned
356 – Idolatry became illegal

The damage done was enough – though Julian tried to correct it, his early death and the damage done in the previous 40 years made it ineffective. Within months of his death, the supremacy of Christianity was confirmed again in 363.

382 – Gratian orders the Altar of Victory in the Senate House of Rome to be removed
391 – Worship in non-Christian Temples banned
By this time, destruction of Temples became an epidemic. 392 – Destruction of Serapeum
399 – Any standing non-Christian Temples will be demolished

407 – Banquets during Ceremonies banned
408 – Another edict saying any standing non-Christian Temples will be demolished – the buildings will be put to public use.
410 – Sack of Rome
455 – Sack of Rome
476 – Western Roman Empire which controlled Rome ends.

A summary of Roman Conversion to Christianity
Where there is terror, there is salvation. He who is doing against his name, let him suffer for his name. O merciful Savagery - Augustine

@Shivneet - current round done. Let's see if I will revive this thread.