Who would you have supported in Rome in the 4th century? The Christians or the Pagans?

[buritobr]

There was a big religious fight which divided in Roman society in the 4th century. In 300, the last and most violent persecution against Christians was taking place. In 313, Constantine made Christianity legal. Constantine was christian, and there were very few pagan emperors after him. In the late 4th century, Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the empire. A persecution of pagans was started, although the empire still had many pagans that time.
Who would you have supported?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Christianity since it's the real one

[Vosem]

The Persians.

[PSOL]

Not Nicene Christianity and their self-destructive tendencies.

[Liminal Trans Girl]

As a Jew, I'm staying out of that stuff

[buritobr]

As a Jew, I'm staying out of that stuff

Julian, emperor between 361 and 363, was the last self declared pagan roman emperor. He tried to have good relation with the jews in the idea that "the enemy of the enemy is my friend". Jews and christians were already enemies.

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

In Hoc Signo Vinces

[Big Abraham]

The Church, as the Roman empire was by then a moribund institution and the local pagan rites were already at that time in great decline and/or being heavily diluted with more esoteric universalizing trends of classical paganism as was found in the Mithraic mysteries, the cult of Sol Invictus, and the syncretism that was happening with Jupiter and the Syrian/Canaanite/Egyptian gods, etc. So there was already the trend towards the universalization of the divine to compensate for the failings of the hitherto universal empire of Rome. Christianity aided in this by raising the already monotheistic Jewish god Jehovah to the status of God of all the worlds, rather than the god of a particular chosen people. However, in order to accomplish this a great deal of concessions to the local pagan rites were necessary. The Virgin Mary would have never been paid attention to if not to occupy the vacancy left by the forced evictions of the goddesses. Ditto for the relics, the saints, and the various fabulous mythologies and superstitions which permeate every classical religion.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This isn't how things worked at all, except at the Imperial Court where absolutely anything could (and over the centuries did) become a factional matter.

[ingemann]

As a Jew, I'm staying out of that stuff

Julian, emperor between 361 and 363, was the last self declared pagan roman emperor. He tried to have good relation with the jews in the idea that "the enemy of the enemy is my friend". Jews and christians were already enemies.

Julian comes across more as a neo-pagan than a pagan, he seem to have a rather Christian understanding of religion, which was likely a major reason why he failed at beating back Christianity. I also suspect that Judaism would have done worse if his religious vision had succeeded.

[Lechasseur]

Christianity

[wnwnwn]

How antislavery were christians at the time?

[Elcaspar]

Christianity and its effects has been a disaster for the human race... or at least its institutionalization did, taking away any transformative effect it could have had

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'd probably favor something like the relative pluralism and toleration Julian tried to promote, but the idea that Ancient Paganism was somehow morally superior to Christianity is ahistorical nonsense.

[buritobr]

I'd probably favor something like the relative pluralism and toleration Julian tried to promote, but the idea that Ancient Paganism was somehow morally superior to Christianity is ahistorical nonsense.

Yes.
The narrative that there was a golden age of the science in pagan ancient Greece and Rome, the Christianity put Europe in the darkness during 1000 years and the Renaissance brought happy days for the science again is not 100% false, but it has some distortions of the reality.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Take a wild guess.