Two thousand years ago, Jupiter was the supreme god of the Roman Empire, worshiped as Optimus Maximus. He was where Jesus Christ is today, the ceremonial divinity of the world’s greatest empire. How could a state religion disappear in such a relatively short period, defeated by a religion that people had once considered a cult? Some experts argue it was market forces that ended Jupiter’s reign. In particular, product innovation by the Christians defeated Roman paganism.
