After Jesus' death, Christians were heavily persecuted in the first two and a half centuries. Many were forced into hiding and those who were public about their convictions were fed to lions for entertainment and tortured. So how did the tides of the Roman Empire change so swiftly that by 350 CE the once pagan city state became one ruled by Christianity"

After Jesus' crucifixion, his rock in which he would build his Church (Paul) began to develop a doctrine that, although distinctly different in many aspects from Judaism, still reached out to Jews and non-Jews (Chambers et al 164). Romans `tolerated' this religion; however, they believed that the Christians should make pagan sacrifices as a civic duty, not religious (Chambers et al 158). Unfortunately many Christians died because they refused to worship a `false god'. This persecution backfired on the emperor of the time (Decius--250 CE) because many citizens thought...