Cody Roberts

Instructor Swain
History 2641
4 May 2015
After the arrival of Christianity, through much of the Roman Empires history many
Christians were arrested and punished for the crime of being Christians. Often this punishment
was death. Christians of the time saw this as unjust persecution. The pagan Romans themselves
did not see it this way. To them, they were merely punishing crimes of a people they believed to
wicked.
Romans, from the point of view of their religion combined with misinformation, saw
Christianity as a depraved cult, vet much in the modern sense of the word as can be seen from
their writings. Minucius Felix misunderstands the Christian custom of addressing one another as
brother or sister and takes it to mean they have religion of lust because any relationship
between them would be incestuous. He also writes of rumors of worshiping strange things such
as donkeys, genitals, and nature, but admits that he does not know them to be true. Another
practice he believes Christians have is cannibalism, which stems from a misunderstanding of the
symbolism of bread and wine for body and blood in Christianity.
Beyond the occult like image, the main problem the Romans had with their Christian
citizens was not that they were different or creepy. It was not an issue of xenophobia, but of
legal matters. The Christians were breaking the law. They disrespected the Roman gods and the
Romans were punishing them for it. The worship of the Roman gods is their main concern.
Suetonius describes Christians as professing a new and mischievous religious belief. This
belief is the worship of their god alone and not the Roman gods. They even seemed to be
concerned with dealing with the issue justly. Pliny, as a governor, sentenced many Christians for
punishment, but he gives a chance to make amends and repent of their crime and avoid
punishment. He asked them if they were Christian three times and warned that they would be
punished if they said yes each time. Those that denied it were to invoke the gods and make an
offering to the statue of the emperor to redeem themselves and they were free to go. Trajan
approved of this method and added that pamphlets circulated anonymously must play NO part

in any accusation. They create the worst precedent, and are quite out of keeping with the spirit of
our age." Later on in the Empire Christians were given a certificate for completing this
procedure which protected them from punishment in the future, regardless of the fact that they
were Christian.
The emperor Nero did not so much decide to mass execute Christians for being Christians
as he was using them as scapegoats for a fire he likely started. The historian Tacitus records that
when this happened the Christian victims were pitied. He does not deny that they deserved
punishment for being Christians, but the disagreement with Nero comes from the way he carried
it out. Not only were they being punished for a crime they did not commit, the way they were
punished was not as if it were for starting the fire. The arrests were made simply based on
admissions of being Christian. Nero then gave them executions that were made amusing.
Because of the way Nero acted, Romans disagreed with his methods and pitied the Christians
even though the pagan Romans still believed they should be punished.
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire cannot be simply written off as
persecution. The Romans believed they were simply administering justice and wanted the
punishments to be carried out justly.

CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/xtians.html

The Ritual Cannabilism Charge Against Christians
http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/christian-cannibals.asp
Certificate of Having Sacrificed to the Gods, 250 CE
http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/250sacrificecert.asp