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In 366, the death of Liberius led to a division in the church at Rome. One faction supported Ursinus, who had served as deacon to Liberius, while the other faction, previously loyal to the antipope Felix , supported Damasus. This dissension climaxed with a riot which led to a three-day massacre and to the rare intervention of Emperor Valentinian I to uphold public order. Damasus prevailed, but only with the support of the city prefect. Once he was securely consecrated bishop of Rome, his men attacked Ursinus and his remaining supporters who were seeking refuge in the Liberian basilica, resulting in a massacre of one hundred and thirty seven supporters of Ursinus. Damasus was also accused of murder before a later prefect, but his rich friends secured the personal intervention of the emperor to rescue him from this humiliation. The reputations of both Damasus and the Roman church in general suffered greatly due to these two unseemly incidents.

Many in both pagan and Christian society saw in Damasus a man whose worldly ambitions outweighed his pastoral concerns. His entertainments were infamous for their lavishness. A wealthy aristocrat called Praetextatus , who was a priest in the cults of numerous gods, is reputed to have said jokingly to Damasus, "Make me bishop of Rome and I will become a Christian". Some of his critics used to call him "The ladies' ear-tickler". An accusation of adultery was laid against him in 378Events Mid-February: Lentienses cross frozen Rhine, invading Roman Empire. Later that year they are defeated by Gratianus. August 9 Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens i in the imperial court, but he was exonerated by Emperor Gratianus himself.

Damasus is notable for his association with JeromeFor other uses see: Jerome (disambiguation Jerome (about 340 September 30, 420), (full name Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. Jerome's edition, the Vulgate, is still the official, whose apparent surviving letters of fulsome praise emphasizing the primacy of the see of Peter, however, are part of the 9th-century Pseudo-Isidorian forgeriesThe Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and certain fictitious letters ascribed to early popes, from Clement to Gregory the Great were incorporated in a ninth-century collection of canons purporting to have been made by a certain, apparently fictitious, Isidore Me. The historic Damasus, however, did appoint Jerome his confidential secretary. He encouraged the highly respected scholar to revise the available Old LatinFor the Old Latin Bible used before the Vulgate, see Vetus Latina. Old Latin or Early Latin refers to the period of Latin texts before the age of Classical Latin. Phonological characteristics of Old Latin are the case endings os and om (later Latin us and versions of the BibleThe Bible (From Greek βιβλια biblia meaning "books", which in turn is derived from βυβλος byblos meaning "papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) into a more accurate LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma, resulting in the VulgateThe Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. Jerome on the orders of Pope Damasus I. It takes its name from the phrase vulgata editio "the edition for the people" (cf. Vulgar Latin), and was written in an every. Jerome devotes a very brief notice to Damasus in De viris illustribus, written after Damasus' death: "he had a fine talent for making verses and published many brief works in heroic metre. He died in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius at the age of almost eighty" (ch. 103).

Damasus also contributed greatly to the liturgical and aesthetic enrichment of the city churches. He employed a calligrapher, one Dionysius Philocalus , to adorn the shrines of martyrs and Roman bishops with epigrams.

These ceremonial embellishments and the emphasis on the Roman legacy of Peter and Paul amounted to a general claim to the Roman upper classes that the real glory of Rome was Christian and not pagan. All this made it more socially acceptable for the upper classes to convert to Christianity. Often, the women of the family were the first to abandon pagan ways, while the men tended to hold on to them longer, being generally more conservative in their idealised views on the greatness of the Empire. This was often more for aesthetic and antiquarian reasons, rather than strictly religious ones. To these elegant, austere citizens, the pagan zeal of the previous Emperor, Julian was an embarrassment nearly as grating as that of any Christian evangelist.

Damasus was the first bishop of Rome to invoke the "Petrine text" ( Matthew 16:18) in terms that sought to establish a serious theological and scriptural foundation on which the primacy of the Roman church could be based. From Damasus onwards, there is a marked increase in the volume and importance of claims of authority and primacy from the Roman bishops, claims reinforced by the forged correspondence with Jerome (see below).

Damasus spoke of Rome in terms of the " Apostolic See", as his predecessor Liberius had also done. This is one of the most noteworthy qualities of his reign, as it allowed him to emphasise his powerful apostolic inheritance. His reign is also one of the more important landmarks in the progression towards the development of the Papacy proper.