The adherents of the crucified Jesus Christ founded Christianity in 33 A.D. in Judea, in what is now Jerusalem, Israel. From there, it spread throughout the Roman Empire.
While at first confined to private homes in Judea, Christianity spread quickly. By the end of the first century A.D., adherents as far away as Laodicea in Turkey were practicing the religion. While early in its history Christianity was reviled and suppressed by the Romans, it was made a licit religion of the empire in 313 A.D. Soon afterward, the Emperor Constantine of Rome, himself a Christian, began eliminating competing religions, setting the stage for the first great Christian branch, Catholicism, to develop.
