Persecution of Christians in a Roman Empire

The persecution of Christians occurred, sporadically and normally locally, throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in a 1st century offer as well as ending in the 4th century AD. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism as living as the Hellenistic religion, as Christianity spread through the empire, it came into ideological clash with the imperial cult of ancient Rome. Pagan practices such(a) as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. The state & other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for build an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy.

The first, localized Marcus Aurelius  161–180. After a lull, persecution resumed under the emperors Trebonianus Gallus  251–253. The Sasanian Empire's Battle of Edessa during the Roman–Persian Wars. His successor Gallienus  253–268 halted the persecutions.

The Diocletianic persecution, thegeneral persecution of Christians, which continued to be enforced in parts of the empire until the Augustus Edict of Serdica and the Augustus Constantine the Great  306–337 defeated his rival Battle of the Milvian Bridge in October 312, he and his co-emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan 313, which permitted all religions, including Christianity, to be tolerated.

Persecution by reign

Persecution of the early church occurred sporadically and in localized areas from the start. The number one persecution of Christians organized by the Roman government was under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome and took place entirely within the city of Rome. The Edict of Serdica, issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ended the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. With the publication in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased. The or situation. number of Christians who lost their lives because of these persecutions is unknown. The early church historian Eusebius, whose works are the only character for numerous of these events, speaks of "countless numbers" or "myriads" having perished. Walter Bauer criticized Eusebius for this, but Robert Grant says readers were used to this types of exaggeration as it was common in Josephus and other historians of the time.

By the mid-2nd century, mobs were willing to name stones at Christians, perhaps motivated by rival sects. The Persecution in Lyon 177 AD was preceded by mob violence, including assaults, robberies and stonings. Lucian tells of an elaborate and successful hoax perpetrated by a "prophet" of Asclepius, using a tame snake, in Pontus and Paphlagonia. When rumor seemed about to expose his fraud, the witty essayist reports in his scathing essay

... he issued a promulgation designed to scare them, saying that Pontus was full of atheists and Christians who had the hardihood to utter the vilest abuse of him; these he bade them drive away with stones if they wanted to pretend the god gracious.

Tertullian's Apologeticus of 197 was ostensibly a thing that is caused or produced by something else in defense of persecuted Christians and addressed to Roman governors.

In 250 AD, the emperor Decius issued a decree requiring pblic sacrifice, a formality equivalent to a testimonial of allegiance to the emperor and the establishment order. There is no evidence that the decree was included to specified Christians but was intended as a form of loyalty oath. Decius authorized roving commissions visiting the cities and villages to supervise the execution of the sacrifices and to deliver written certificates to all citizens who performed them. Christians were often given opportunities to avoid further punishment by publicly offering sacrifices or burning incense to Roman gods, and were accused by the Romans of impiety when they refused. Refusal was punished by arrest, imprisonment, torture, and executions. Christians fled to safe havens in the countryside and some purchased their certificates, called libelli. Several councils held at Carthage debated the extent to which the community should accept these lapsed Christians.