Chapter All roads lead to conflict?

Overview & Synopsis

Migrants imported Christianity to Rome in the first century AD and migration shapedRoman Christianity ever since. Settling at the capital, migrants were often also ambas-sadors of new doctrines or introduced new liturgical forms from elsewhere in the em-pire. While some novel elements were successfully integrated into the already existinglocal tradition(s), others presented profound challenges. In this respect, the end of thesecond and beginning of the third century was a particularly vibrant period. Several sig-nificant clashes between newly arrived and the »well-established« are recorded. Theseconflicts offer genuine though biased accounts of migration of Christians to Rome andthe challenges and opportunities this presented to the young but growing Christiancommunity in the city. Based on four case studies, this contribution seeks to chart migra-tion, profile Christian migrants, outline (typical) patterns of movement and re-examinethe conflict potential of such movements.