ABSTRACT
In the early third century, Hippolytus in his Commentary on Daniel charged the Roman Empire with imitating Christianity. Hippolytus pointed to the overlapping chronology and similar methodology of the two institutions:
For as the Lord was born in the forty-second year of the emperor Augustus … and as the Lord also called all nations (’′ε) and tongues by means of the apostles and fashioned a people (’′εoς) of believing Christians, a people of the Lord and a new name, so all this was imitated (’ε ´o) in every way by the empire ( ε ´) that was ruling then through the work of Satan. For it also collected to itself the most high-born (ε o´oς) from every nation (’ε
ω) and naming them “Romans” prepared them for battle. (4.9.1-2)
In this passage, Hippolytus gives Jesus credit for devising the notion of collecting a multicultural diversity of peoples and forming them into a new cosmopolitan social unity or “cultural identity”: “the people of believing Christians.” The Lord’s idea was then co-opted by the Roman Empire, which gathered the highborn from every nation and called them “Romans.” Hippolytus positions these two dichotomized groups as strictly opposed to one another.
