> In less than ten years, Constantine succeeded him and later made Christianity the national religion (I am NOT advocating this).

The kind of Christianity Constantine and many political leaders used was hardly recognizable from the cult that jesus started. Constantine himself did not convert to Christianity until he was on his deathbed, at which time it was more of a last-ditch effort to get into heaven; in later medieval times, rich catholics would use the same method by sinning throughout their lives and then giving all of their money to the church just before dying. In a much larger way, Constantine paved the way for a political christianity; when before christian churches had been individualistic and small, they now were part of a large bureaucratic system that put the power back into the hands of political/religious leaders. Basically, rome was just where it had started, and Christianity was profoundly changed from its roots.