markus meecham
Banned
But the christian faith was about 10 percent of the empire's population duriang constantine's time.Eh... You didn't understand my point. Paul is the most important in one instrumental thing in further evolution of Christianity. It is the break with the Judaism and abaddoning the Law, so making it interesting for the Gentiles, instead of just another messianic jewish sect.
Julian's reforms needed an ASB to succes, or at least a totalitarian state (in a real soviet style) to impose them on the population. If not Constantine so it would have been some other emperor, who would realize that it was important for the Empire to had support in the biggest religion. The cult of Isis, mithraism, etc were just novelties, fashions, no true rivals to Christianity. They lacked cohherent doctrines, organizaton, church structures, universal appealing, less prozelyting, etc.
my opinion from what i could take from my sources is that without constantine's sincere belief christianity would never have spread as far.
i mean, he basically strip mined most temples to build constantinople, after all.
edit: your post is talking about julian, not constantine, i'm dumb, sorry.