On Sunday, March 30, 2003, Harmon Seaver came up with this...
You give too much credit to the Romans. Catholicism worked so well because it is a virus, and conversion was often forced upon heathens by their fellow countrymen.
Interestingly though, Christianity started in the Holy Land but never got much traction there. There have been persistent rumors that one of the reasons was that it was based on some very big lies, that would be easily spotted for such at their place of origin, and so it was spread to those who had not a way to check on their verasity (communications being rather poor in those days). One story is that Christ and Barabbas (the Jew who was pardoned by Pilate) were brothers or father and son, and that Jesus chose to die in his brother's/son's place.
steve
