Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible

by J. Warner Wallace

At its peak, Rome controlled a portion of three continents and the Mediterranean Sea. With each conquest, the Romans annexed another culture, along with its languages, traditions, and gods. Rome’s early strategy was simple: allow each people group to retain its gods and traditions and embrace these deities as part of the larger Roman pantheon. Rome had done this earlier with the gods of Greece and had, in fact, adopted the Greek gods as their own, “Romanizing” the Greek pantheon. This effort to tolerate the gods of conquered nations served the Roman Empire well in most cases. Annexed regions were encouraged to worship their own gods, and Rome even built temples and facilitated animal sacrifices to the gods of captured groups. All they expected in return was for the annexed groups to submit to Roman authority and to make offerings (however nominal) to the Roman gods.