As the Roman Empire expanded through Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, it came to consist of individuals of a wide variety of religious beliefs. In general, the Roman Empire treated these diverse religious elements with tolerance and a practical acceptance. This changed after the Roman Empire became officially Christian, but as this did not occur until near the downfall of the Roman Empire, it cannot be said to be “generally” indicative of Roman policy.

In 313 C.E. the Roman Empire was divided between those believers of the ancient religious institutions of Rome and the rapidly growing Christian minority. The Roman politicians, in various attempts to garner support, had been systematically persecuting or tolerating Christianity. The Edict of Milan, however, permanently ended persecution of Christianity in Rome and paved the way for the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. It was issued by Emperor Constantine. 

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between the Roman and Carthaginian Empires between approximately 265 B.C.E. and 145 B.C.E. At the time of the outbreak of war, the Carthaginian Empire was the largest in the Mediterranean and controlled massive swathes of North Africa and Spain. However, the war would eventually end in their total defeat and ushered in half a millennium of Roman dominance of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. 

The Roman Empire rose to prominence in the second and first centuries B.C.E. And cemented their status as the dominant hegemonic power in Europe by defeating Carthage over a series of conflicts collectively called the Punic Wars. Carthage was an empire centered in North Africa (in what is modern day Tunisia). The Carthaginian people were a mixture of Phoenicians and Berber people who combined to form the Punic civilization. 

The common man in the city of Rome during the time of the Roman Empire are generally called “Plebeians,” “Plebs” for short. The term can now carry a connotation of suggesting that someone is ignorant or impoverished.

Carthage was a powerful city-state in North Africa that fought several wars (called the Punic Wars) with Rome for dominance of the Mediterranean Sea in the third and second centuries BCE. Both Athens and Sparta, two once powerful Greek city-states, had long declined by this point, and were individually never major rivals of Rome. Tyre was a once-powerful Phoenician city that had also declined by this point, due to foreign conquest. Byzantium, a Greek city that would later become Constantinople, was never powerful enough in this period to be a major rival of Rome.

Christians had long suffered persecution under the rule of the Roman Empire, but the religion continued to grow in prominence and following. In the year 380 C.E. Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire following a decree issued by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Theodosius was inspired by the Nicene Creed (325 C.E.) which was one of the earliest professions of faith in Christianity.

The Diocletianic Persecution was the last widespread, official persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. It began in the year 303 C.E. and lasted, in some form or another, until 313 C.E. when Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which officially granted tolerance to practicing Christians within the Empire.

According to Roman legend, the city of Rome was founded by twins Romulus and Remus in 753 BCE. This date would become extremely important as Rome established an empire over the entire Mediterranean, as they dated their years from this event, using the phrase "Ab Urbe Condita," or "from the founding of the city." This form of dating was the preferred usage in Europe until Christianity became dominant in the fifth century.

The Roman pantheon of gods was very similar to the Greek pantheon of gods. The Roman equivalent of Zeus, the head god in the Greek religion, was Jupiter.