Cody Roberts

Instructor Swain

History 2641

4 May 2015

After the arrival of Christianity, through much of the Roman Empire’s 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