Th e competition between the Optimates and the Populares
continued, with Tullius Cicero (106–43 b.c.e.) championing
the Optimates against Octavian. As a consequence, he was
murdered.
Aft er the transformation of the republic into the Roman
Empire, there were many conspiracies to assassinate emper-
ors and other political leaders, but the most notorious faction
of dissent was a religious organization. Eastern religions had
made their way into Rome and Roman Europe. One of these
religions was Christianity. Th e Christians came to political
prominence in 64 c.e., when most of Rome was consumed by
fi re. Rumors circulated that the emperor Nero (r. 54–68 c.e.)
had started the fi re to clear land for a palace and gardens he
wished to build. He made scapegoats of the pacifi stic Chris-
tians, who were regarded as anti-Roman. Th e cruelty of tor-
ture and murder to which Christians were subjected won for
them sympathy among many Romans. Th e emperor Diocle-
tian (r. 284–305 c.e.) renewed the persecution of Christians
with vigor, but in some Roman provinces the local govern-
ments did not press the persecutions. In 312 c.e. there was a
dramatic reversal in fortune because the emperor Constan-
tine I (r. 306-337 c.e.) converted to Christianity.
With Constantine’s conversion, pagans became the dis-
senters. Prominent among them was Quintus Aurelius Sym-
machus (ca. 345–ca. 402 c.e.). In 382 c.e. he protested the
removal of the Altar of Victory from the Senate, and the em-
peror Gratian (r. 367–383 c.e.) sent him into exile. Gratian
was assassinated in 383 c.e., and Symmachus was allowed to
return to Rome. In 391 c.e. he became a consul. In 391 c.e.
Emperor Th eodosius I (r. 379–395) issued edicts suppressing
Rome’s traditional religion, and Symmachus protested. His
written arguments for tolerance of diff ering religions sur-
vive, as does a large collection of his letters. He was one of the
last supporters of the traditional Roman religion to engage
Christians in debates about religion and its place in Roman
culture.During the Roman Civil War of the fi rst century b.c.e. Marcus Junius Brutus and others conspired to assassinate the dictator Julius Caesar, which
they accomplished in 44 b.c.e.
880 resistance and dissent: Rome