To understand the answer to this very significant question one must first come to grips with a profound fact that is almost always lost in the conversation and missed by the most astute historians and even theologians. That is Christianity was, and still is, really two distinct genres of influence. It is a "religion"; arguably the largest one in the world. But that is the institution...human created and propagated organization now divided by Catholic and Protestant. The vast majority of people think that is the definition of Christianity and of course, it is not. The other distinction is first seen historically both in the history of Christianity recorded in the Bible (which is a historically viable primary source collection of documents) and numerous records like the Jewish Historian Josephus and Roman records themselves, that have been preserved and discovered. In the first century, followers of Jesus Christ considered themselves disciples based on a spiritual, metaphysical experience that they believed to be very real and transformative to each of them personally. That influence of spirituality influenced thought and behavior and (now to respond to the short term effects of Christianity in the Roman Empire) it prompted a complete change in the priorities of life. There was an immediate change in everyday life for this exploding part of the population. They forsook the worship of Roman deities and all that went with that. Of course, Rome itself, it's culture, its politics, its way of life was predicated on the influence of the Roman pantheon of gods. This led to great change in the Roman world and was perceived as a threat to Roman culture and way of life. Romans did not care if Christians worshipped Jesus per se, but the idea of loosing the bloodshed of the arena, the importance of military conquest, and focus of love and kindness instead of money and power prompted many emperors to persecute Christians. Periods of persecution and tolerance ebbed and flowed til the end of the empire; but Constantine changed everything by embracing Christianity as a cultural influence verses a spiritual one. His acceptance of Christ was based on military conquest and basically a replacement of Roman gods for Jesus. There is little historical evidence, apart from what he thought was a vision that Jesus told him to conquer in his Christ's name (which of course would have been contrary to everything Jesus taught). Constantine made Christianity in vogue in the Roman world and millions of Romans poured into Christian enclaves where only those who had the aforementioned spiritual experience had gathered before. Now there was a mixture of both disciples as Jesus identified them, and people that were just there because it was now a popular cultural trend that made them anthropologically part of the Roman community. The response of church leaders was over a long period of time, to separate the "true" Christians from the "cultural" ones by mandating everyone desiring to be baptized as a Christian, to go through a protracted series of classes (three years in fact) of training in the Old Testament as well as the teachings of Jesus. The result was only the really determined stayed. But that did not fix the problem as even those who stayed were still not necessarily those who had a spiritual personal experience with Jesus, but also those who simply had found a sense of belonging and community in the community with those who passed the required milestones of joining...biblical testing, observances of biblical requirements such as communion, baptism, etc. These all became part of being "confirmed" in the church. So an institution of people who religiously practiced Christian behaviors emerged along with those who had been transformed spiritually. This would become the "Roman Catholic (universal) Church. It remained a mixture with these institutional Christians (the majority) who were part of it because of the sense of belonging and the "true " christians (the minority) of those who claimed to be "born again" (John 3) Both groups were in "the church" but the majority (still focused on money and power) propagated matters and events that were very unChristlike (such as the crusades). That distinction of Real Christians verses cultural ones, impacted not latter Rome profoundly and effectively perpetuated the Roman empire as the Pope would come to replace the Emperor in the west. The long-term effect in the Roman empire is that this mixture (regarded as Christianity by those who don't know any better) still resound in culture today promulgating a tension in society that is spiritual, cultural, and political. In a sense, Rome still exists.
This is one of the major questions of the Roman Empire (and a question that could inspire entire books written about it). In any case, Christianity plays a critical role in Roman history, both in the short and long term.
In the short-term, we should admit that Christianity represented a challenge to Imperial authority. Roman religion had historically had a civic function, and this continued in the time of the Emperors, where Emperors had cults and carried with them a divine, religious claim to authority. The Early Church, then, represented a critique of Imperial authority, especially as the Church continued to grow throughout the Empire. At the same time, and in a similar vein, we might make note of conflict between Christian and Pagan communities within the Empire. To the early Emperors, Christianity represented a disruptive force within the Imperial Order. When looking towards the Early Church itself, you will observe a great deal of suppression, most famously expressed in the many stories of Christian martyrdom which precede the reign of Constantine.
In the long term, you should note that Christianity actually emerged as the official religion of the Empire. Part of this was undoubtedly the work of political calculation, but even before emerging as the religion of the State, Christianity had been spreading fast, and had emerged as a powerful force within the Empire. It had an egalitarian bend which was rare among ancient religions, and its message of salvation was immensely powerful in the Classical World. Even after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Christian Church remained ascendant, and would become a powerful force (politically, religiously, socially and intellectually) across the Middle Ages and beyond.
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