The Origins and Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empir

Christianity’s main belief is that Jesus Christ was the messiah. Jesus died and rose again for the Hebrews. Christ performed miracles, healed the sick, and died on a cross for the sins of mankind. Apostles came and spread the word of Christ and told of his miracles to the world. Eventually, these Apostles came to Rome and preached to the poor. It was the poor that started the faith of Jesus and God.

As the empire soared in populace, power, and area, the people saw the emperor as a god, as well as keeping their polytheistic gods from the Greeks and the Egyptians. Christianity would not put the emperor higher or the same standing as God.

“Because of the political instability, military and economic crisis, and the social upheavals in th

Century, one of Emperor Decius’ main objectives was to restore the stability of the empire’s past. In early AD 250, in an effort to unite the Empire against the threat of the Gothic invasion in the Balkans and the Sassanian Persians in the East and also as an attempt to restore the old virtues of Rome, Decius commanded that all citizens of the empire demonstrate their loyalty to the state gods and his divine reign through public sacrifice.” (Erickson) He set up sacrificial altars in all cities and villages and hired commissioners to supervise the execution of the sacrifices. Any citizen that would participate received written certificates to prove who performed the sacrifices. A citizen that refused was regarded as a threat to the religion of the Roman Empire, was branded a Christian, and denied “goodwill” to the sovereign. Any citizen who refused to perform the sacrifices was subject to arrest, imprisonment, and eventually fed to the lions during the Gladiator competitions.

The persecution lasted in Rome for a long while until, during current Roman conquests of new lands, Decius’ army took a heavy loss against the Goths that cost Decius his life. Persecution was halted for a short while. This was the Christians time to regroup and spread the religion even more. The successors to Decius tried to

In 303, Diocletian issued edicts that demanded the reform of Christianity. The edicts were to completely stop Christianity forever. Eusebius and Lactantius were eyewitnesses to such acts. “This was the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian in Dystrus (March) when the feast of the Savior’s passion was near at hand, and royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches Should be razed to the ground, the Scriptures destroyed by fire, those who held positions of honor degraded, and the household servants, if they persisted in the Christian profession, be deprived of their liberty. And such was the first decree against us. But issuing other decrees not long after, the Emperor commanded that all the rulers of the churches in every place should be first put in prison and afterwards compelled by every device to offer sacrifice.” (Jan)

Some topics in this essay:
Edict Milan, Alexander Jerusalem, Rome Diocletian, Roman Empire, Circus Maximus, Dystrus March, Rome Decius, Empire Seven, Fergeuson/Grupp Constantine, Jan Rodriguez, roman empire, persecution christians, citizen refused, christian church, sacrifices citizen, little empire, worship freely, christianity emperor, constantine lifted,