What did rome do to early christians?

Answer 1

Until 250 CE, the Roman authorities treated the Christian Church with great indifference. Until Christianity's break with Judaism, late in the first century, the Romans would have tolerated Christianity as a sect of Judaism. Even for some time after that break, the Romans were probably not fully aware of its permanence, and would have continued to regard the Christians as Jews.

Origen, the third-century Church Father, writing of the total number of Christian martyrs up until his own time, stated that there were not many and that it was easy to count them (Contra Celsum 3.8).

While Rome may have treated the Christians with indifference, there is no doubt that some citizens would have, from time to time, blamed natural catastrophes on Christians for their failure to appease the gods.

It is sometimes claimed that Nero (54-68) was the first emperor to persecute the Christians. However, it has been pointed out that the Christians themselves never made that claim until centuries later. Tacitus, writing about half a century later, said that Nero did blame the Christians for the Great Fire and convicted many of them, "not so much for the crime of arson as for their hatred of the human race." Even here, G. Walter suggests that part of the quote ascribed to Tacitus was really a later Christian interpolation.

It is also said that official persecution occurred under Domitian (81-96), but any persecution seems to have been limited in scope. In any case, Origen's statement tells us that there were few real martyrs.

By 250, Christians incurred the displeasure of the pagan Roman government because they did not seem entirely loyal. The government liked to express the view that, by worshipping their own God instead of the pagan gods, the Christians were flouting the hallowed traditions of Rome. But what the emperors may have really meant was that these Christians could not be relied upon to do what the government required, preferring to accept the authority of their own bishops instead, and thus fostering disunity in the empire. A brief period of persecution followed, and a somewhat more serious persecution followed at the end of the century.

It has been estimated that the early Christians suffered official persecution for a total period of about twelve years.

Answer 2

They beat, excecuted, and burned many of the christians. * Persecution of early Christians by the Romans * Persecution of Christians

Answer 3

Stab them in the eyeball