Quote:"Christianity flourished in a pagan empire when Christians simply wanted to live and let live.
The statement became true after the Edict of Milan when Constantine declared religious toleration throughout the empire. Jesusism, which the estimates of scholars indicate had managed to attract between 5 and 10% of the population until then - and even that represented all sorts of xtian groups combined - began to grow once it had been granted legal status. After 380 when Theodosius declared jesus shit to be the official religion it of course grew much more quickly but by then the orthodox were free to be the persecutors themselves.
As with almost anything else related to the Roman Republic/Empire any statement needs to be placed in time as things changed greatly depending on circumstances.
