Tithe's for the church, taxes for the state... That "Render onto Caesar..." line must have stuck out to the early royal adopters. The big guy, JC, tells all to pay taxes, mentions giving god his cut as well. A suspect line, possibly inserted... very convenient for secular rulers, and the church.

Tithes / Taxes and protection rackets... yeah, yer right. I didn't think of that. Don't forget the looting and plunder that came with subduing pagans. It you convert them. you get to take their lands.... in reality that's what happened.

So true. A lot of how we look at pre Christian "pagans" comes from the romantics of the 1800-ish era. For pagan leaders Christianity's best selling point was its hierarchical structure. By adopting Christianity you also brought its leadership structure into your society. Pope/king, Cardinal/Baron, priests/sheriffs. It showed how to divide up a country, who shows fealty to who. Volodymyr I of Kyiv openly stated this was one of the main reasons he chose Christianity... he liked the way the church was run. He mapped it's structure onto civil society.

It was an interesting question. Rarely bought up. Romans, everybody in the area back then, enslaved entire cities, I've not heard this of the Chinese. It likely happened. My Chinese history is sketchy.

The Chinese were not saints. They enslaved when they wanted the labor, just like the rest of the planet.

When the east fell to the Turks in 1454 AD intellectuals/books flooded Europe and is a factor in the renaissance of the 15th century.

Mongol warriors in the 12th century were said to have ten horses each when they invaded Europe, grass fed. Europeans fed their horses grain. London in 1900 was said to have 600.000 roaming it's streets on any day. Sorry, can't recall date, but would guess pre 2000 BC, Pharos legs bones, when examined, were curved from riding donkeys... 500 years later horse driven chariots are all over the place. The horses usefulness greatly increased when use of a harness that did not constrict their windpipe was invented.