The Lord Jesus Christ warned his disciples and apostles that they would be persecuted in the world. They did not have to wait long for these events - already in the second half of the first century, the Roman authorities began active activities dedicated to the persecution of followers of the Christian faith.
Christians began to endure persecution immediately after the ascension of Christ. These events are described in the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. The main persecutors were first the Jews, and only then the Roman authorities.
The first Roman emperor to persecute Christians was Nero. He was the initiator of the burning of Rome, and the blame fell on the followers of Christ. Christians were called not only apostates from the pagan religion, but also harmful members of Roman society, due to which the terrible consequences of a fire that destroyed several large areas of Rome occurred. Thus, Christians were viewed as opponents of the state and religious system of the Roman Empire.
Further, historically Christians were also attributed to other "sins" against society, paganism and the authorities. So, in the followers of Christ's teachings, the pagans saw terrible cannibals, supposedly gathering in caves in order to drink the blood of babies. The roots of this conviction lie in the fact that Christians from the first centuries understood the need for the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. Also, Christians were reproached for various depraved orgies, incomprehensible sacrifices that they brought to their God.
During the times of persecution of Christians under the emperor Trajan (98 - 117 years of reign), a new cause of persecution appears. One of the most terrifying and inexplicable. The so-called persecution of nomen ipsum, which translated from Latin means - "only for the name." It was enough to call yourself a Christian to be executed. There were certain bodies under the emperor that sought out Christians for the purpose of subsequent torture.
One of the main reasons for the persecution is the refusal of Christians to make sacrifices to the pagan gods. Any Roman emperor-persecutor had the right to execute for this "atrocity". It was for this that many outstanding church leaders of the first centuries suffered even to death.
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire continued in waves until Christianity became the state religion under the Emperor Constantine the Great (the Edict of Milan in 313 was the main step towards the subsequent formation of Christianity as the state religion of Rome). However, it should be noted that even after Constantine, emperors appeared who could persecute Christians for refusing to return to the pagan religion.
