[otabdeveloper4]

Historically false. Christians were persecuted in Rome because they refused to sacrifice to Divine Ceasar.

Rome was very serious about worshiping Ceasar; the rest was optional.

(Rome didn't have a "civil society" or "social contract" in any sense we'd recognize. Their laws were supposed to be divinely ordained, and refusing to acknowledge this was grounds for the death penalty. If you're imagining Rome as some sort of freedom of religion place like America with the First Amendment then you're sorely mistaken; think Soviet communism or China instead.)

[vkou]

How do you reconcile that claim with the polytheistic nature of religion in Rome, and it's practice of folding other religions into it, as it absorbed conquered cultures?

Your parallels to 20th century governments miss the mark as much as the claims you are criticizing.