The roots of early Christian imagery in the Roman Empire : archaeological and artistic evidence

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful and longest-lasting empires of all times. It was home to a multitude of people from different social strata and ethnicities, as well as various linguistic and religious backgrounds. This diverse cultural community allowed different religions to arise, to be known, and also to flourish. One of these religions was Christianity. Christianity had to find a way to adapt itself to its environment and to attract converts to its new worldview. This created the need for an approach to make the Christian message more readily accessible. Therefore, Christians started using images to represent Christian themes that could be more easily understood by the Gentiles and the first Christian converts from Judaism. The way in which Christianity manages to spread its message in an efficient manner is through decorative images in the baptisteries, prayer halls, burial places and mausoleums. Therefore, an examination of images and artifacts, which are still extant, will be performed in order to find the root of Christian representations that influenced Christianity and its way of worship. The artifacts that will be examined will come from the late 2 nd century through to the late 5th centur