Theodosius in Africa- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 25 Part 6

From the fall of Carthage in 146 BC to the arrival of Christianity at the end of the 2nd Century nothing much happened in the Roman province of Africa.  But although it was uneventful it was far from unimportant. The Romans used Africa as the name for the area around Carthage, modern day Tunisia, and the southern shore of the Mediterranean to its east - the northern part of modern day Libya.   At that time it was highly productive and fertile.  The bread dole that formed part of the bread and circuses that kept the population of Rome fed and entertained was largely from this region.The absence of this area from the history of the early period of the empire is simply because the Romans had it under control.  The population were busy producing the food that Rome needed and weren't allowed to do anything else.  History starts again with the arrival of the 'Good News' and the resulting warfare between different Christian factions.  Why were the Christians so violent?  It is tempting to blame it on a sort of cosa nostra style battle between competing gangs of religious syndicates.  To get control of the spiritual revenues they needed to wipe out their rivals.  But maybe there was something a bit deeper behind it?