History Of Persecution

Eras of Persecution Throughout history, minorities have always been subject to persecution by countries and empires for a myriad of reasons. One prominent example occurred during Roman Empire with the early Christian Church. The Roman Empire, an empire infamous for its brutality and efficiency at conquering new lands and people, victimized the early Christian community. Even though it is quite evident that the Romans persecuted Christians, the reasons behind the persecution of Christians are more complicated than what they may appear at the surface. At its essence, the Roman Empire persecuted Christians and the Christian church because Christians posed a threat to the Roman government and the Roman way of life. The history of persecution

In order to better understand why the Romans persecuted the Christians, it is imperative to examine Rome’s treatment of other minorities under its control. As the Roman Empire expanded, they conquered many lands and believed “themselves extra-ordinarily well-qualified to hold supremacy over all nations of the ‘world’,…to promote civilization most vigorously among them. Had not Jupiter himself and the other gods destined them to be masters of the world?” (Janssen 145). Rome’s prominent jingoism helps explain the Roman Empire’s attitude and treatment it had over the people of the lands it had conquered over the years. As a result, Rome’s harsh suppression of some of its conquered people stems from an mélange of political, religious and social

Even though many scholars have disputed the main cause of persecutions, many have acknowledged the many aspects have contributed to the persecution of the early Christians. The Roman Empire was one of the greatest and largest empires of the Old World and had to instill harsh measures in order to maintain and assert its control over the different lands and people that it had conquered. As it grew, the Roman Empire strove to preserve the roman way of life and its citizens loyalty to their emperor and nation. And since Rome claimed leadership from their gods, the Roman Empire needed to have citizens loyal to the empire and to the gods. Not doing so could be viewed as threatening by the empire as it could demonstrate that a person was not loyal to Rome and to the gods. Since early Christians refused to partake in religious ceremonies, they not only posed a threat from a religious point of view, but from a social and political one as