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Christian tradition says that persecution of the Christians began with Emperor Nero in the 60s of the first century. Certainly, he blamed Christians, perhaps unfairly, for the Great Fire of Rome, but there is no evidence for the persecution by him of Christians more generally. It has been pointed out that Acts of the Apostles, written long after the time of Nero, never mentions any persecution of Christians, and that no Christian writing even mentioned Nero as a persecutor until long after the event. Although Nero very likely used the Christians of Rome as scapegoats, this falls short of persecuting them for their religion. Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) finds circumstantial evidence that Nero never issued any edict requiring the persecution of Christians.

Some say that Christians were persecuted under Domitian (81-96 CE), but there is no firm evidence for this. Any persecution carried out would have been local and limited in scope.

The first widespread, official persecution of Christians known to have occurred began under Emperor Decius in 249 CE and lasted for about 18 months, apparently without great loss of life.

Gibbon suggests that the early Christians created a legend of prolonged and widespread persecution of the Christians in order to justify their cruel treatment of pagans, once they themselves had taken control of the empire.

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