[classicalguy]

At what point were Persians Christian? Before the Muslim conquest they were quite devout Zoroastrians, rather dedicated to killing the Christian Romans. In the early 7th Century the Romans exhausted themselves driving the Persians out of Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities...and they have all but no history of democracy.

[lizma]

they were quite devout Zoroastrians, rather dedicated to killing the Christian Romans.

It seems to me the Iranians I know aren't privy to that fact. They just claim their ancestry to be Christian.

Could it be that their enemy bent on slaughtering them just happened to be Christian also?

From what you said Rome was the aggressor, the guys who decide they wanted someone else's space. Not sure why you would blame the Iranians / Persians for this. Right now we are scrambling and praying to protect our own little plot on this planet from aggresors.

I really don't know. Someday I'll work on googling this conundrum but any links you can provide to support your assertions would be appreciated.