As we all know, Christianity was adopted in the Sassanian Persian empire with the Sassanian Emperor converting to Christianity in 1086 AUC (333 AD) and Christianity becoming the official religion of the Sassanian Empire (albeit a form syncretized with Zoroastrianism with Zoroaster seen as a prophet of God) in 1137 AUC (384 AD) while Christians were heavily persecuted in the Roman Empire as the faith of Sol Invictus swept through the Empire and Christians were seen as Persian supporters, but what if the situation was reversed with Rome adopting Christianity and Persia heavily persecuting Christians as a response to the "enemy" power adopting Christianity? How would this affect the Migration Era? What PODs might be neccessary for such a scenario to occur?
DBWI: Have Rome and not Persia adopt Christianity
- Thread starter Whiteshore
- Start date
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- Tags
- christianity dbwi persia rome
Simpliest way might be that Romans not begin persecution of Christians so them have not move to Persia. Altough even then it would be difficult turn Rome as Christian due its very conservative main culture and ethnically and linguistically diverged population. And one major problem is that even if Romans not begin persecute Christians, they might be bit suspictious towards them due their Jewish origin and Jews caused some problems in Judea/Palestine. I am not sure if we get Romans attracted enough from Christianity.
I wonder could you have seen Christianity spread outside of the East here...
Even if it somehow came to the Western Mediterranean, though, it'd never have got to more Northerly climes. Worship of the Aesir is too deeply engrained.
Even if it somehow came to the Western Mediterranean, though, it'd never have got to more Northerly climes. Worship of the Aesir is too deeply engrained.
We have to remember that in the begining, the Sassanids only tolerated christianity to spite the romans.
If the Persians persecuted Christians too, maybe the Romans Christians do not leave the Empire, thus it form a sort of sect that can try to influence the top society and in turn have a Roman emperor convert and force Christianity on the Romans.
I think it will prove too disruptive for the empire to survive though. Contrary to Persia, Rome was far more prone to civil war, as the 4th century showed. Christianity would certainly make the situation worse, and we might even see the empire being split in more pieces for a longer time. I also don't think it will reunite as it did for a brief time in the 6th century.
If the Persians persecuted Christians too, maybe the Romans Christians do not leave the Empire, thus it form a sort of sect that can try to influence the top society and in turn have a Roman emperor convert and force Christianity on the Romans.
I think it will prove too disruptive for the empire to survive though. Contrary to Persia, Rome was far more prone to civil war, as the 4th century showed. Christianity would certainly make the situation worse, and we might even see the empire being split in more pieces for a longer time. I also don't think it will reunite as it did for a brief time in the 6th century.
Yea, even when Christian Turks (well, their form of Christianity was heavily syncretized with Tengriism and Buddhism) conquered Aesir-majority areas, they simply required Aesir followers to pay an extra tax and most conversions were from the merchant class.
As for a good POD for Persia not going Christian, maybe Mani doesn't write his famous text which helped with syncretizing Christianity and Zoroastrianism by arguing that Ahura Mazda was merely another aspect of the Judeo-Christian god.
Skallagrim
Banned
I don't want to be a spoilsport here, but let's keep in mind that the Levantine regions had historically been a Persian 'back yard'. The Roman occupation was a historical aberration. The cultures of the Middle World have always been connected to some extent, so it's not surprising that a Levantine religion would resonate within this sphere of interconnected cultures. Christianity ultimately provided the impetus for the removal of the Roman yoke and the reunion of the old Persian lands, even. It just strikes me as unlikely that the Western occupier, fully foreign to the cultures of the region, would just adopt a religion deeply rooted in the cultural backdrop of the Middle World. It would be as if Persia were to decide to embrace the gods of the Northmen!
[OOC: I'm calling the greater Persian world / alt-Christendom 'the Middle World', contrasted to the Roman 'Western World', everything east of alt-Christendom as the 'Estern World', and northern Europe and Russia as the 'Northern World'.]
[OOC: I'm calling the greater Persian world / alt-Christendom 'the Middle World', contrasted to the Roman 'Western World', everything east of alt-Christendom as the 'Estern World', and northern Europe and Russia as the 'Northern World'.]
OOC: Is the "Eastern World" essentially China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Buddhist/Hindu/Jain bits of India?
Skallagrim
Banned
OOC: That's basically what I was thinking, but didn't want to specify how many inroads into India (or other eastern regions) Christianity has made. I'll leave that for others to play with.
So, what do you think is the largest possible extent of Christianity? I'd say that Christianity could have expanded further into Zhongguo (OOC: China) and Bharat (OOC: India) as Turkic Christian dynasties ruled large swathes of Northern China for over 600 years from about 1800 AUC to 2650 AUC (Or from about 1050 AD to 1700 AD) and even historically, 21% of Zhongguo's population is Christian and in some areas of Northern Zhongguo, there's even a Christian majority (OOC: I'm thinking of Christianity in China ITTL as being like Islam in India historically) and Bharat has had ancient trading ties with Persia but outside of India (OOC: Refers to what in OTL would be Pakistan along with the Indian Punjab) and most of the Gangetic plain (except for traditionally Buddhist Magadha), Bharat is largely Buddhist or Hindu.
I could see it forming some weird syncretic religion with britanic goddess worship.
- First, it would be Rome or Constantinople becoming the center of the Christian Church, instead of Seleuceia Ctesiphon. It might be called "Roman Catholic Church" rather than "Syriac Catholic Church".
- Christianity being trapped in the European penninsula evidently means it won't ever expand into India or China as in OTL.
- There's a chance the migrating barbarians convert to Christianity, depending on how stable Rome is ITTL. IOTL the worship of Sol Invictos consolidated the supreme importance of the Emperor, though ironically it also made him less relevant to the daily administration of the Empire, to the point that by 1000 AD the position was mostly ceremonial even though it had become associated with a single dynasty for 600 years.
Maybe, the Aesir/Esser faith does bear some resemblance to syncretic Christianity - each god an aspect of the single divine, the life of Baldor resembling that of Christ, etc.