Before the fourth century, Christian and Roman identity were not synonymous. In the Persian Empire, Christians were differentiated along ethnic lines and had separate churches: the Roman refugees were referred to in Syriac as krestyānē (Christians) while the native Persian Christians were called naṣrāyē (Nazarenes).51 It is clear, therefore, that the category of “Christian” did not equate with “Roman” until after the time of Constantine. Yet the idea that the Christian faith—the line of thought that