How the Romans handled rival religions

A hadith attributed to Muhammad said that there would be 73 sects of Islam (of which only one would reach heaven). However many there are, they seem as likely to kill each other as they do the infidel.

The one virtue of classical religion was that it embraced all gods, come what may. So when the Romans arrived in Britain, they put up altars to local gods as well as their own. Olympus knows what Zeus and Mercury made of Garmangabi, Gontrebi, Mogti and Ricagumbeda, but that was their problem. Indeed, Minucius Felix (3rd c. ad) pointed out that one reason why Romans were so successful was that the moment they defeated a people, they sacrificed to that people’s gods as well.

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The big exceptions Romans came across were, of course, Jews and Christians. Since Jews were difficult to deal with anyway and took up arms for their beliefs, Romans ruled they did not have to worship the emperor, whom they held to be a god. But that did not apply to Christians. With no imperial policy on the issue, governors acted as they saw fit.

Some chose to persecute them, others not. Pliny, governor of Bithynia ad 110-113 (northern Turkey), had been receiving anonymous pamphlets naming troublesome Christians. Lacking legal precedents, Pliny saw this as a policing issue, arrested them and ordered them to invoke pagan gods, make offerings to the emperor’s statue and revile the name of Christ. When they refused, Pliny saw that as a direct threat to Roman rule and executed them. But the issue clearly worried him, and he wrote to the emperor Trajan for help: in particular, should he punish people for having been Christians?

Trajan added three important riders.