Vesuvius and the Fear of God

T1, E3: It is commonly assumed that the Apostles Peter and Paul spread Christianity across the planet, turning a tiny religious sect into the world’s largest religion. Is this possible? Can two people really have had such global influence? Long ignored archaeological evidence – found beneath the ashes of Pompeii and Herculaneum – seems to suggest that what put the fear of God into pagan Romans was not Jesus, Peter or Paul. It now seems that the event most responsible for Christianity’s conquest of the Roman Empire was the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.