![]() ![]() The Decian persecution was particularly extensive. ![]() After a lull, persecution resumed under Emperors Decius ( r. 249–251) and Trebonianus Gallus ( r. 251–253). ![]() A more general persecution occurred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius ( r. 161–180). The first, localized Neronian persecution occurred under Emperor Nero ( r. 54–68) in Rome. The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy. Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and the Hellenistic religion, as Christianity spread through the empire, it came into ideological conflict with the imperial cult of ancient Rome. The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)Ĭhristians were prosecuted, sporadically and usually locally, throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the 1st century AD and ending in the 4th century. ![]()
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