"Space impact 'saved Christianity'"

[Swimmy]

Did a meteor over central Italy in AD 312 change the course of Roman and Christian history?


A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock's impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity.

It was just before a decisive battle for control of Rome and the empire that Constantine saw a blazing light cross the sky and attributed his subsequent victory to divine help from a Christian God.

Constantine went on to consolidate his grip on power and ordered that persecution of Christians cease and their religion receive official status.

Civil war

In the fourth century AD, the fragmented Roman Empire was being further torn apart by civil war. Constantine and Maxentius were bitterly fighting to be the sole emperor.

Constantine was the son of the western emperor Constantius Chlorus. When he died in 306, his father's troops proclaimed Constantine emperor.

But in Rome, the favourite was Maxentius, son of Constantius' predecessor, Maximian.

With both men claiming the title, a conference was called in AD 308 that resulted in Maxentius being named as senior emperor along with Galerius, his father-in-law. Constantine was to be a Caesar, or junior emperor.

The situation was not a stable one, however, and by 312 the two men were at war.

Constantine overran Italy and faced Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber a few kilometres from Rome. Both knew it would be a decisive battle with Constantine's forces outnumbered.

'Conquer by this'

It was then that something strange happened. Eusebius - one of the Christian Church's early historians - relates the event in his Conversion of Constantine.

"...while he was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvellous sign appeared to him from heaven, the account of which it might have been hard to believe had it been related by any other person.

"...about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the Sun, and bearing the inscription 'conquer by this'.

"At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle."

Spurred on by divine intervention, Constantine's army won the day and he gave homage to the God of the Christians whom he believed had helped him.

This was a time when Christianity was struggling. Support from the most powerful man in the empire allowed the emerging religious movement to flourish.

Like a nuclear blast

But what was the celestial event that converted Constantine and altered the course of history?

Jens Ormo, a Swedish geologist, and colleagues working in Italy believe Constantine witnessed a meteoroid impact.

The research team believes it has identified what remains of the impactor's crater.

It is the small, circular Cratere del Sirente in central Italy. It is clearly an impact crater, Ormo says, because its shape fits and it is also surrounded by numerous smaller, secondary craters, gouged out by ejected debris, as expected from impact models.

Radiocarbon dating puts the crater's formation at about the right time to have been witnessed by Constantine and there are magnetic anomalies detected around the secondary craters - possibly due to magnetic fragments from the meteorite.

According to Ormo, it would have struck the Earth with the force of a small nuclear bomb, perhaps a kiloton in yield. It would have looked like a nuclear blast, with a mushroom cloud and shockwaves.

It would have been quite an impressive sight and, if it really was what Constantine saw, could have turned the tide of the conflict.

But what would have happened if this chance event - perhaps as rare as once every few thousand years - had not occurred in Italy at that time?

Maxentius might have won the battle. Roman history would have been different and the struggling Christians might not have received state patronage.

The history of Christianity and the establishment of the popes in Rome might have been very different.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3013146.stm

[wrain62]

Probaly not a coincidence.

[BoniPastoris]

most thing's are not coincidences, most things happen for a reason. Well apart from quantum physics where cause can come AFTER effect, but hey that takes ages to understand. I know i'm not crazy enough for that. Some people are, I love that.

Oh and Constantine Built a City named after him Called Constantinople, It had a nice mix of Christian churches and pagan temples. Must be good to live in such an enlightened society where everyone can get along huh?

[sandy_mcd]

This story is from 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3013146.stm. The meteorite interpretation is from a 2002 publication (from studies starting in the 1990's - wikipedia) according to this undated link http://cab.inta-csic.es/noticias_detall ... 108&lng=en. Subsequent more detailed studies (2009) do not support the meteorite theory http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscient ... 9677D765B1.

First the dinosaurs, then the Roman Empire. Was there anything that could not be explained by a load of bolides?

Bolides indeed

Well, sadly for this colourful story, scientists have now conclusively debunked the idea. The “Sirente Crater” turns out to be nothing more than a dew pond, excavated by shepherds probably during Roman times, for the watering of their animals in the dry karstic landscape. The regular need to de-silt the depression explains its raised rim: modern shepherds have been seen doing the same for other dew ponds in the area as recently as four years ago. It also explains the total lack of any corroborating evidence to have come to light since the idea was first floated by J A P Ormö et al. in their paper. Supposed magnetic anomalies tentatively linked to meteorite hit were discredited as being due to shrapnel and other bits of army ordnance which litter the area since World War 2.

In fact, since the original idea was published, not a single geochemical or geophysical anomaly, shocked mineral grain or siliceous spherule has come forward to support the idea. Now, geophysical surveys, conducted for the first time across the depression itself, have shown that the supposed crater shows no magnetic anomalies attributable to impact, and that there appears to be no disturbance at depth.

[wrain62]

It would have been amazing if it were true, but nothing like this is ever corroborated by science.

[sandy_mcd]

It would have been amazing if it were true, but nothing like this is ever corroborated by science.

But you have to expect a lot of false positives. If there is a report of a meteor/(ite), then any depression is a possible impact crater. So, many can be investigated, and while most may be false leads, one may turn out to be genuine. The problem bigger than rejected candidates is that it is impossible to rule out that such an event took place. You can say that this one isn't real, but not that there is no real one.

[For fun go to http://maps.google.com/(assuming everyone has the same north american-centric starting point and see if you can find what turns out to be the Manicouagan impact crater.]
And of course, Troy turned out to be real.

[BoniPastoris]

It would have been amazing if it were true, but nothing like this is ever corroborated by science.

This one seems true. I would give it a chance, but even if it were true there would only be more questions to ask.