What we call the Nicene Creed arose from a baptismal rite from the territory covered by Paul and Barnabas in their missionary journeys. But Roman Catholics also know another confession of faith, the Apostles' Creed. It originally came from the baptismal ceremony of the Church of Rome, founded by the apostles Peter and Paul.
Both creeds have 3 main parts, mostly all expressions of faith coming from the early Church. That is because our faith is not a list of tenets common in a political platform, but a statement of personal commitment to the 3 divine persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Both creeds also mention the Church, the sacraments and eternal life.
While both creeds started out as simple professions of faith in 3 divine persons, they were forced to expand. Various heresies arose, challenging the Church's teaching. In both the East and the West, a popularheresy of the 2nd century taught that the material world was disgusting, that God, the Father of Jesus, did not create it, and that the body of Jesus was only an appearance.
So both creed had to add that God the Father was creator of heaven and earth, and that Jesus was truly born and had truly died. In the fourth century, powerful heresies arose primarily in the East that denied the divinity of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The Nicene Creed was expanded by the first 2 ecumenical councils, which took place in the East, to emphasise the equality of Jesus with the Father and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles' Creed, however, underwent no such official expansion. (Hence the Nicene Creed is much longer than the Apostles' Creed. See separate blog entry for the Creeds.)
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