Move forward about 300 years. The Romans have conquered Greece -- and, for that matter, the world from England to Egypt. And they’re steamed at some tribes who are, from the Roman viewpoint, atheists. The upstarts won’t treat the Roman emperor as a god-like being, don’t worship Jupiter or other Roman gods, and refuse to believe that the gods even exist.
Some of these stiff-necked infidels were troublesome enough when they were simply Jews. But now, a splinter group of Jews, ex-Jews and others are following the teachings of a radical rabbi called Jesus. Even worse, they’re attracting more and more people to their atheistic ways, which they call Christian. The Romans tried to stop the Christians by tossing some of them to lions.
The Romans didn’t think of the Christians as atheists for long, though. By 312 CE, when the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the faith had soaked into the empire and soon became the official, government-sponsored religion.
Unfortunately for atheists, the Christians were tougher on infidels than the Romans were.
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