Relaxing the rules This meant taking a more relaxed approach to ancient Jewish laws about ... there were still very few Christians in Rome. They were regarded with suspicion.

The finding may upend historians' understanding of how Christianity was practiced in the early Roman Empire. Measuring just 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) long, the amulet contains a wafer-thin ...

The Annals by Tacitus, composed just 91 years after the death of Jesus, provide according to some invaluable data about his crucifixion and the early persecution of Christians.

The objects are indeed real – they are the centuries-old skeletal, human remains exhumed from Rome's underground catacombs.

“Christianity in Roman Africa, I: Communities and Religious Movements ... and this work examines the ways in which ancient Africans negotiated their own complex identities in relation to each other ...