Ironically Pagan religions were tolerant of each other and coexisted.
Their acceptance was mostly to do with the degree to which the gods of the 'other' could be mapped on to the Roman gods and the degree to which they were seen as ancient (
religio) or modern (
superstitio). This is why you see 'modern' late 1st C origin cults like Mithras being mapped on to the ancient Mitra to 'fake' legitimacy.
You should not only worship the divine everywhere and in every way in accordance with our ancestral traditions, but also force all others to honour it. Those who attempt to distort our religion with strange rites you should hate and punish, not only for the sake of the gods … but also because such people, by bringing in new divinities, persuade many folks to adopt foreign practices, which lead to conspiracies, revolts, and factions, which are entirely unsuitable for monarch.” Dio Cassius - History of Rome
Also
, tolerant' Romans:
In Egypt, some
Manicheans, followers of the prophet
Mani, were denounced in the presence of the proconsul of Africa. On March 31, 302, in a rescript from Alexandria, Diocletian, after consultation with the proconsul for Egypt, ordered that the leading Manicheans be
burnt alive along with their scriptures.
[115] This was the first time an Imperial persecution ever called for the destruction of sacred literature.
[116] Low-status Manicheans were to be executed; high-status Manicheans were to be sent to work in the quarries of Proconnesus (
Marmara Island) or the mines of
Phaeno. All Manichean property was to be seized and deposited in the imperial treasury.
[115]
Diocletianic Persecution - Wikipedia
Also see persecutions of Druids, followers of Bacchus, astrologers, etc
The Roman Catholic church was powerful enough because of the Rome was powerful. It eliminated any alternative Christian beliefs up until the time that the Protestants gained enough military power to challenge the Roman Church.
Sorry, but this couldn't be more false.
They eliminated any alternative Christian beliefs? There were literally hundreds of Christian sects in existence as they had absolutely no ability to 'eliminate' them all. Not to mention plenty of them existed far outside the Roman Empire.
Some might have wanted to, but it was impossible as they were not omnipotent, and administration and enforcement in the pre-modern world was a world away from your imagination of it.
Think about the Soviet Union and its attempts to eliminate religion or political dissent, or the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Both of these were far smaller Empires with infinitely better technology and enforcement capabilities and they came nowhere near to achieving what you ascribe to the Church.
Now try to explain the logistics of your centralised omnipotent Church systematically scouring the Empire of heresy and paganism. Maybe they has a Death Star or something that I missed
The best you will do is mention sporadic, localised persecutions. Don't forget sporadic, localised persecutions were very much part of the Pagan Roman Empire too and these failed to eradicate their opponents too.
Empires were decentralised and different [arts acted according to their own whims as communication was so slow, and central powers highly limited in their ability to project power across vast distances.
Why did they die out over many, many centuries then?
What do you think happens to a religion based on praxis when it's major centres shut down as no one is paying for them?
Once the major city based centres die out, who is writing about them?
Then over
centuries, the beliefs among the 'commoners' die out or evolve too, often because their chiefs or lords convert.
Some belief systems just stop being popular over time. They are not 'eradicated', even if they are persecuted at times. Some of their traditions are absorbed into their new belief systems, that is the way it always has been.
You do not have any people writing about the Greek or Roman gods or goddesses until interest in them long after anyone who did believe in them had long disappeared. So what do you mean how powerful was the church?
Why do you think we know so much about all of these Roman and Greek gods, philosophies, etc?
Christians spend the best part of 1600 years copying "pagan" texts endlessly. Where do you think our copies of the Iliad or any Greek philosophical text come from?
You have all kinds of "Pagan" writers for centuries after Constantine, you even had a pagan Emperor, Julian.
Neoplatonism (basically a "pagan" religion) had a major impact on Christian theology
Greek "pagan" texts formed a core part of Byzantine (i.e. Greek) education after the fall of the Roman West.
Unfortunately, yours is a comic book version of history, not an accurate reflection of the complexities of the historical reality.
