Roman Religion: Persecution of Christianity

Persecution of Christianity

The Roman Empire is remembered today for its awesome power and many innovations, but one aspect of their remembrance has become a prominent discussion in our day and age, the prosecutions of Christianity. To an extent, Romans were understanding in others’ religions and cults. One of the major parameters they did set was that these groups had to pray to their gods. After Jerusalem was captured, Jews were treated harshly by the Romans, in part by their unwillingness to recognize Roman gods and the emperor as holy. There was tension on both sides but over time and integration between Jews and Romans, Jews were allowed to practice their religion without objection. Romans understood they were passionate about their belief in a singular god and could see the reasoning behind not preying to anyone else. However when Christianity came along, the Romans did not want to make another exception for a similar religion. After all, the Old testament for Christianity is the Torah for Judaism. In 64 C.E., Emperor Nero engineered the first attack on Christianity. He blamed the Great Fire, which some had thought he ordered, on those of Christian faith. During specific negative events or times of crisis, persecutions took place to take out the Romans’ anger and to use as a distraction. It was common for emperors to order persecutions to take the focuses off their negativity. These persecutions were accomplished in different ways. One of the most common methods was burning Christians alive, but there were other methods like putting Christians in a beast-fighting ring or feeding them to dogs. Throughout the first, second, and third centuries, persecutions severely depended on how the local governments approached Christianity. Often times persecuting Christians just became scapegoating for another issue. The fact that they were Christan were attacked making other important issues in less significant. On a broad point, Christians were prosecuted to discourage further conversions and bring people back to the belief in the Roman gods. This is how the last persecution of Christianity began. Galerius, the ruler of one of the four Roman provinces, convinced another named Diocletain to start persecuting in order to restore the purity in Roman religion that was severed by the introduction of Christianity. From the year 303 to 313, Christians had to swear an oath to the Roman gods and make an offering to them or die. During this time, churches were burnt, Christians were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in one of the largest persecutions in Roman history. The persecutions of Christianity have extreme importance for they led, in part, to the rise of the Christianly. Although Christianity had already gained a following prior to the persecutions, the persecutions drew attention to the cause. If someone demands someone can not do something, the instinct reaction is to do exactly that. The Roman persecutions of Christianity had an drastic influence in the world we see today.