And lastly, Christianity was born and flourished in an empire with a common language that allowed for its spread. And crucially, it was also an empire in decline. Like, even by the end of the first century CE, Rome was on its way down. And for the average person, and even for some elites, things weren't as good as they had been. In fact, they were getting worse so fast that you might have thought the end of the world was coming. And Roman religion offered no promise of an afterlife and a bunch of squabbling, whiny gods. Sorry if I offended adherents to Roman religion, but seriously, they squabble.