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With or without Constantine, by the early 4th century Christianism was one of the two most popular religions in the Roman empire. Constantine adopted Christian symbols exactly because it was already popular.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and loses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil war was over, Constantine (now the uncontested Augustus of the West) and Licinius (Augustus of the East) signed together the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianism as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who wields a magical war hammer, claims to come from Asgard, and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianism (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianism, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.

With or without Constantine, by the early 4th century Christianity was one of the two most popular religions in the Roman empire. Constantine adopted Christian symbols exactly because it was already popular.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and loses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil war was over, Constantine (now the uncontested Augustus of the West) and Licinius (Augustus of the East) signed together the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianity as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who wields a magical war hammer, claims to come from Asgard, and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianity (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianity, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and loses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil was over, Constantine and Licinius together signed the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianism as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who claims to come from Asgard and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianism (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianism, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and loses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil war was over, Constantine (now the uncontested Augustus of the West) and Licinius (Augustus of the East) signed together the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianism as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who wields a magical war hammer, claims to come from Asgard, and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianism (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianism, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.

With or without Constantine, by the early 4th century Christianism was one of the two most popular religions in the Roman empire. Constantine adopted Christian symbols exactly because it was already popular.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and looses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil was over, Constantine and Licinius together signed the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianism as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who claims to come from Asgard and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianism (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianism, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.

With or without Constantine, by the early 4th century Christianism was one of the two most popular religions in the Roman empire. Constantine adopted Christian symbols exactly because it was already popular.

• In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity...

  ... and loses the civil war.

  The situation was that the Roman empire was, officially and in principle, a tetrarchy, with Constantine as (irregular and contested) Augustus of the West, Maxentius as Augustus of Italy, and Licinius ruling the rich and stable East.

  By 308 CE the political situation decayed into a six-sided civil war; Constantine had the allegiance of the legions of Britannia, Gallia and Hispania, relatively poor provinces, whereas his principal opponent, Maxentius, controlled Italy.

  Constantine needed a simple and clear differentiator, so that people could easily understand what Constantine stood for; in a stroke of genius he adopted the banner of the monogram ☧ (Chi Rho, for Christos), thus signalling his position as emperor of the people fighting against the political establishment. He won the war under the Christian banner, and that was that.

  (While the other competitors used standard traditional political imagery, Constantine adopted a symbol of the religion practiced in various ways by about two thirds of the population, especially the lower classes. By placing the symbol on his banners he implicitly made a promise to elevate the religion of the masses to equal status with the established state religions.)

  

  In hoc signo vinces (under this symbol you shall win); public domain image by Dylan Lake representing the character U+2627. Available on Wikimedia.

  After the civil was over, Constantine and Licinius together signed the Edict of Milan which recognized Christianism as an accepted religion in the empire.

• ....the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.

  By the early 4th century AD the traditional Roman and Greek religions were on life support; basically nobody practiced them any longer except as required by state ceremonies. They did remain in use as a source of literary and artistic tropes and subjects; but this is not life. Consider that in 2018 AD, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie where one of the main characters is a strong supernatural person named Thor, who claims to come from Asgard and to be the son of Odin: this doesn't mean that the old Germanic religion is alive.

  Among the urban lower classes and in the army the most popular religions were Christianism (of many various sorts) and Mithraism. Polytheism remained strong only in the countryside; consider that the English word "pagan" comes from Latin paganus, which properly means villager.

• So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire?

  Don't focus on Constantine; it is way too late. By the early 4th century the only question is whether the empire will be Christian, Mithraic, or maybe both. The traditional polytheistic religions of Rome, Greece, Gaul, Britain and so on were effectively dead by that time.

  As for the question as asked, what changes to make in order to prevent the spread of Christianism, the answer is simple and well-known. Kill Paul, or at least give him a strong incentive to forego transforming a marginal Hebrew sect into an attractive universal religion. Without Paul, Christians are ordinary Hebrews, one of the many sects into which Judaism splintered after the destruction of the Second Temple.