History
The Catholic History of Rome
Rome is the seat of the Church because Saint Peter, the first bishop of Rome, was martyred and buried here, and his successors inherited his office in the city where he died. Saint Paul was beheaded here as well. Rome was also the capital of the empire, while the Church of Jerusalem was scattered after the Roman army destroyed the city in the year 70. The office belongs to Peter's successor, not to a place, and it has stayed where his tomb is through the persecutions, the sacks, the Avignon exile and the loss of the Papal States in 1870.
Before 64
The Jews of Rome and the First Christians
A Jewish community was already living in Rome in the second century before Christ, and the Gospel reached it within about twenty years of the Resurrection. When Saint Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans in the winter of 57 to 58, he was writing to a church he had never visited. Neither apostle founded the Church of Rome. It already met in house churches, and Paul's closing greetings name some of them.
In the year 49 the emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. The Roman historian Suetonius says the cause was disorder over "Chrestus," which many read as disputes over Christ inside the synagogues, and the Acts of the Apostles has Aquila and Priscilla leaving Rome for Corinth at that time. Santa Prisca on the Aventine keeps the tradition of their house. Saint Mary in Via Lata keeps the tradition of Paul's lodging during his house arrest. Both are traditions, not proven by excavation, and are best visited as places of memory.
