The early adoption of Christianity not confined to the poorer classes.--Instances of Roman nobles who were Christians.--The family of the Acilii Glabriones.--Manius Acilius the consul.--Put to death because of his religion.--Description of his tomb, recently discovered.--Other Christian patricians.--How was it possible for men in public office to serve both Christ and Cæsar?--The usual liberality of the emperors towards the new religion.--Nevertheless an open profession of faith hazardous and frequently avoided.--Marriages between Christians and pagans.--Apostasy resulting from these.--Curious discovery illustrating the attitude of Seneca's family towards Christianity.--Christians in the army.--The gradual nature of the transformation of Rome.--The significance of the inscription on the Arch of Constantine.--The readiness of the early Church to adopt pagan customs and even myths.--The curious mixture of pagan and Christian conceptions which grew out of this.--Churches became repositories for classical works of art, for which new interpretations were invented.--The desire of the early Christians to make their churches as beautiful as possible.--The substitution of Christian shrines for the old pagan altars at street corners.--Examples of both.--The bathing accommodations of the pagan temples adopted by the Church.--Also the custom of providing public standards of weights and measures.--These set up in the basilicas.--How their significance became perverted in the Dark Ages.--The adoption of funerary banquets and their degeneration.--The public store-houses of the emperors and those of the popes.--Pagan rose-festivals and their conversion into a Christian institution.