@Oxymandias & @Lord_of_Uzkulak: Those are indeed the parallells, and a good source of inspiration for 40k in so many ways. :02:
As to early Christian infighting, the theological hairsplitting was usually more of a fig leaf cover for regional interests at play: Antioch versus Alexandria (a theme going back to Seleucids versus Ptolemies, and mirroring Assyria versus Egypt) versus Constantinople versus Rome, with Arianism allowing barbarian converts to have their own branch of church independent from the Roman one. Very Warhammer 40’000.
Note that most of the theological disputes originated from Antioch and in particular Alexandria, two of the Roman Mediterranean’s largest cities and long-established centers of learning. When classically educated upper class people (with Greek philosophy under the belt) embraced Christianity, they wanted to continue their esoteric discussions within the new religion, thereby spawning a fertile field of theology. The regional rivalry was at full display during the various church councils. For instance, one Alexandrian theologian proposed that Christ as man and divine was basically schizophrenic, which the clergy of Alexandria didn’t embrace, but they were damned if they would let those pesky priests from Antioch denounce their prestigious theologian! So Alexandria raised hell about Antioch’s denounciation of their famous thinker, even though the bishop of Alexandria didn’t even agree with him.
Death of Hypatia, the famous Pagan female mathematician of Alexandria, at the hands of a Christian mob.
This rabid regional and religious infighting went so far, that if you were to buy a fruit from a salesman in the market in Alexandria or Antioch, he might ask you if you thought Christ was (basically) 50% divine and 50% human, or 100% divine, or 100% human. If you answered wrong, you wouldn’t get to buy your fruit from him. The compromise solution was to declare Christ 100% human and 100% divine, by the way. This aggressively myopic fixation with obscure matters of theology is definitely fertile inspiration for Warhammer 40’000 as well.
Likewise, the Donatist controversy in Carthage following Diocletian’s great persecution mirrored groups in Roman north Africa, with usually poorer Berbers (who had little to lose) sticking to their faith and dying the martyr’s death, while richer Romanized Punics and Roman colonists (who had a lot more to lose in this world) usually apostasized. After the persecutions, the church in Carthage split over whether apostates were to be allowed back in or not, with rural banditry and vehement urban violence as a result. This is likewise very 40k.
An unfortunate Christian facing Damnatio ad bestias in the amphitheatre.
All this frenzied Church infighting really sabotaged the Roman Empire in the east. Remember that Coptic Egypt in the 7th century AD submitted willingly to both Sassanid Persian and Arab Muslim invaders because those foreign fire worshipper and Ishmaelite occupants weren’t their hated overlords in Constantinople, and both Syrian and Egyptian Christians proved willing collaborators in building their new Arab landlubber rulers a mighty fleet to fight the Roman/Byzantine Thalassocracy. A contributing factor to Constantinople losing Egypt so rapidly despite naval landings in Alexandria to attempt reconquest from the Arabs, was the absentee Roman landlords in the capital demanding 20 years’ backpay (!) on farmland lease from the peasants on their Egyptian estates, after a full generation of Persian occupation during the last, longest and greatest Roman-Persian war (602-628 AD) of them all: The famous war of emperor Heraclius (look it up, it’s a nailbiter with the Roman empire cornered, and really something out of the ordinary).*
Also very 40k.
“Alexamenos worships [his] God,” from a Pagan Roman 3rd century AD blasphemous piece of graffiti.
It should by the way be noted that Alexandria was a hotbed of urban infighting from the start. This great metropolis of half a million inhabitants saw numerous street riots, pogroms and clashes between its large Greek, Coptic Egyptian and Hellenized Jewish populations, not least during the bloodsoaked Kitos war, or Diaspora revolt of 115-117 AD during the reign of Hadrianus.
It was a violent and divisive time, as most eras are.
Which, too, is great fodder of grimdark inspiration for the far future!
- The last Persian-Roman war was decided by cunning. Toward the end of the war, Heraclius had campaigned from out of his basecamps in eastern Anatolia, but had to return every winter since his horses couldn’t graze amid snow. This went on for several years, until Heraclius allied with the Western Turkic Khaganate, who brought extra horses with them. Suddenly, the Roman-Turkic army had nomadic steppe horses that could graze on grass under snow, which allowed the campaign to continue during the winter and strike deep into Persia, destroying the sacred fire temple of Adur Gushnasp as revenge for the Persians taking Jerusalem and the True Cross. Then the Romans managed to shatter the Sassanids at the ruins of the old Assyrian city of Nineveh in 627 AD. Assyria, meaning Chaos Dwarf! :21:
