turned out to be very successful. By the third century Christians
were constructing churches like that found at Dura Europos and
digging their own catacombs at Rome; they were also increas-
ingly attracting the hostile attention of the Roman imperial
authorities (see chapter 6). How did Christianity develop from a
few beleagured disciples in Judaea to a worldwide movement in
such a relatively short space of time?
This is a difficult question to answer because of the short-
comings of the sources. We have already seen that the many
medieval accounts of early missionaries founding churches in
different parts of Europe are too tendentious to be taken seriously
(p. 46). Our most important ancient narrative, Eusebius’ Eccle-
siastical History, is rather less helpful on this topic than might
be expected from a work that was devoted to recounting the
triumph of Christianity in the Roman world. His own statements
on the dissemination of Christianity are limited to accounts of
apostles taking the gospel with them to different parts of the
world, and his sources for this are either the New Testament itself
(particularly the Acts of the Apostles) or a rather nebulous ‘tradi-
tion’ (paradosis:Ecclesiastical History3.1.1). He tells the story,
now universally regarded as pure invention, of the early conver-
sion of king Abgar of Edessa in northern Mesopotamia, and his
exchange of letters with Jesus himself (Ecclesiastical History
1.13). That Eusebius tells us so little is hardly surprising. For him,
paganism was a disease, and Christianity was its cure: Christian
success was inevitable and was guaranteed ‘by the power and help
of heaven’ (Ecclesiastical History2.3.1). No further explanation
was necessary.
For modern historians, who are prone to ask why a small
religious sect could come to be the religion of the Roman empire,
further explanation isnecessary. Even so, answers are scarce. Like
Eusebius, other early Christian writers were convinced that the
success of their religion was guided by God. Moreover, they
often made statements about the progress of Christianity, but the
historical reliability of such remarks is doubtful given that they
appeared in polemical or apologetical works. Thus Irenaeus of
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