[Junior]

The Romans never required Christians to renounce Christ. They did require them to take part in official Roman religious ceremonies, however, which the Christians refused to do -- hence the persecution. Jews, who made the same refusal, were given special dispensation as their religion was extremely ancient, whereas Christianity was considered a fairly recent cult.

The Romans were amazingly tolerant of other folks' religions, which probably came from living in a polytheistic society.

[S0122017]

The Romans never required Christians to renounce Christ. They did require them to take part in official Roman religious ceremonies, however, which the Christians refused to do -- hence the persecution. Jews, who made the same refusal, were given special dispensation as their religion was extremely ancient, whereas Christianity was considered a fairly recent cult. The Romans were amazingly tolerant of other folks' religions, which probably came from living in a polytheistic society.

Romans did round up Christians after the whole Rome burning incident and threw them to the lions. Oh and they crucified Jezus to punish the Jews and prevent another uprising (they wheren't convinced Jezus was peacefull). So their tolerance was limited, they treated other religions like muslims treat other religions. Accept them as long as they obey, otherwize kill a few thousand to show whos boss.

[Little Ray]

They were pretty intolerant of some things like the cult of Cybele.
All in all, I think it had more to do with cosmopolitanism, than polytheism.