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Persecuting Christians in the Early Roman Empire
Why didn’t the Romans quickly destroy the new religion?
Popular imagination, reinforced by Hollywood and devotional literature, suggests that from the birth of the Christian movement to its final acceptance in the early-fourth century, Romans relentlessly hounded and persecuted the followers of Jesus. Although most governments are unlikely to be one hundred percent efficient, given nearly three centuries to carry out the task, why didn’t the Romans eradicate the Christian religion?
In fact, an organized, empire-wide, state-sponsored persecution of Christians didn’t arise until the middle of the third century. The short answer to the question is that Romans didn’t wipe out the Christians because, for the most part, they weren’t terribly concerned about them. Before the third century, the Roman policy toward Christians followed the ideas found in an exchange of letters between the Emperor Trajan and a minor Roman statesman named Pliny the Younger.
Plinius Secundus was the nephew of the much more famous Pliny the Elder. This uncle wrote the lengthy treatise, the Natural Histories — a compendium of Roman knowledge — and died while investigating the eruption of Pompeii in AD 79. His literary accomplishments overshadowed his nephew who, despite a desire to secure an enduring…
