Watercolor, charcoal and plaster on paper

The picture of the early Christians being peaceful souls, unjustly persecuted, could only have been because the Church controlled historical writings for centuries. All other deities were willing to co-exist. Pagan Rome did not persecute religious minorities or dispute the existence of other deities. An addition was a matter of indifference because all deities of all peoples were understood to be manifestations of one supreme deity. The Christian Church alone thought the toleration of others to be the persecution of itself.

-- Walker, Barbara G., The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1983. Page 209.