PJ Media

Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official state religion of the Empire at the end of the 4th Century AD. The Roman Empire began to come apart during reign of Emperor Nero in the 7th decade of the 1st Century AD before much of the New Testament was even written.

Centuries of wars of imperial succession made it dangerous for an Emperor seated in the City of Rome to invest a successful general at the frontier with substantial military resources lest that general follow Caesar’s example and Cross the Rubicon to take the throne for himself. The Emperors came to rely upon defense in depth out of enlighten ‘dynastic’ self interest.