Tag: Emperor Trajan

“For they did not love the present world but the one who died on our behalf and was raised by God for our sakes.” Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna

Written by Dr. Marcus J. Serven

Why did the Romans persecute the Christians? At first the Romans merely saw the Christians as a subset of Judaism and therefore they were not persecuted by the Romans. After the dispersion of Jews from Israel and at the conclusion of the Roman-Jewish War (AD 66-74), Christians no longer enjoyed this legal protection and they became a target of the state. Their refusal to offer worship to Caesar earned them the title of “Atheists” since they would not acknowledge that Caesar was “Lord.” Moreover, their practice of eating the “body” and drinking the “blood” of Christ in the Lord’s Supper became an offense to the Romans. They falsely accused Christians of “cannibalism.” And so, what exactly was the policy of the Roman government? Consider this letter of inquiry from the Roman provincial governor of Bithynia, Pliny the Younger (AD 62-c.113) who sought advice from the Roman Emperor Trajan on how to treat Christians. He asks,  

It is my rule, Sire, to refer to you in matters where I am uncertain. For who can better direct my hesitation or instruct my ignorance? I was never present at any trial of Christians; therefore I do not know what are the customary penalties or investigations, and what limits are observed…this is the course that I adopted in the case of those brought before me as Christians. I ask them if they are Christians. If they admit it I repeat the question a second and a third time, threatening capital punishment; if they persist I sentence them to death. For I do not doubt that, whatever kind of crime it may be to which they have confessed, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy should certainly be punished. There were others who displayed a like madness and who I reserved to be sent to Rome, since they were Roman citizens…An anonymous pamphlet was issued, containing many names. All who denied that they were or had been Christians I considered should be discharged, because they called upon the gods at my dictation and did reverence, with incense and wine, to your image which I had ordered to be brought forward for this purpose, together with the statues of the deities; and especially because they cursed Christ, a thing which, it is said genuine Christians cannot be induced to do.

— Pliny the Younger, Epistolae ad Trajan X.96; cited in Bettenson and Maunder, eds., Documents of the Christian Church, 3-4

The Emperor replied with the following advice: 

You have adopted the proper course, my dear Pliny, in examining into the cases of those who have been denounced to you as Christians, for no hard and fast rule can be laid down to meet a question of such wide extent. The Christians are not to be hunted out; if they are brought before you and the offense is proved, they are to be punished, but with this reservation—that if any one denies that he is a Christian and makes it clear that he is not, by offering prayers to our deities, then he is to be pardoned because of his recantation, however suspicious his past conduct may have been. But pamphlets published anonymously must not carry any weight whatever, no matter what the charge may be, for they are not only a precedent of the very worst type, but they are not in consonance with the spirit of our age.

— Trajan to Pliny, Epistolae ad Trajan X.97; cited in Bettenson and Maunder, eds,, Documents of the Christian Church, 5

This revealing correspondence demonstrates how the Romans gave Christians an opportunity to recant from their worship of Jesus Christ, by acknowledging “Caesar is Lord.” If they did not then they would suffer the consequences. As would be expected, many Christians refused to recant and thereby they went to their deaths. Such a rejection of Jesus Christ was unthinkable to them. Hence, the persecution and martyrdom of Christians increased under Roman rule. 

There were, however, others within the church who under pressure rejected Jesus Christ in order to spare their own lives. This situation produced an awkward crisis within the Christian church, and that was how to relate those who had given way to the Romans. Should those who denied the faith be readmitted to the church once the threat of persecution had diminished, or not? Over time three basic responses emerged: (1) to graciously readmit all of those who had previously rejected Jesus Christ; (2) to only readmit those who had rejected Jesus Christ upon their private and public repentance; or (3) to steadfastly refuse to readmit those who had previously rejected Jesus Christ since they could not be trusted. This crisis became a struggle between those who argued for a gracious response and those who argued for maintaining the purity of the church. 

Why were Christians willing to endure persecution and martyrdom? Here are four reasons based on Scripture as to why Christians were willing to go to their deaths for the sake of Jesus Christ: 

1. They had personally experienced a changed life and could not conceive of living as they had formerly lived. (See: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” Phil. 1:21)
2. They had witnessed the transformation of the lives of others who formed the true church, of which they were a part. (See: “For just the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” 1 Cor. 12:12-13 And see: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” 2 Cor. 5:17) 
3. They firmly believed that if they through death became “absent from the body,” they would surely be “present with the Lord.” (See: “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” 2 Cor. 5:6-9)
4. They resolutely believed that the Father had demonstrated His power through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Hence, they trusted they too would be resurrected unto life following their death. (See: Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…” John 11:25) 

Hence, we see that Christians have a foundation of trust in God that allows them to be persecuted and martyred. Nowhere in the Bible are Christians encouraged to seek after persecution and martyrdom—in some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Yet, they have been given spiritual resources that enable them to face it with courage. 

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Listed below are the “Ten Waves of Persecution” which were directed against Christians by the Romans. Note—many thousands of unnamed Christians died at the hands of the Romans. Only those notable individuals whose suffering and martyrdom were preserved in ancient literature are listed here. Many lesser known Christians suffered confiscation of their property, arrest, trial, imprisonment, torture, and death. They suffered for Jesus’ sake (Matt. 5:10-12). 

• The First Persecution, under Nero, AD 64-68 – Peter, Paul, Erastus, Aristarchus, Trophimus, Barsabas, Ananias the bishop of Damascus, and 100’s of other Christians in Rome are martyred. Some were covered in pitch and set afire in the Emperor’s garden. Even the most stoic Roman citizens were horrified by this level of barbarous cruelty.

• The Second Persecution, under Domitian, AD c.90-96 – Simeon the bishop of Jerusalem, Clement of Rome, Dionysius the Areopogite, Nicodemus, and Timothy are martyred. The Apostle John after being boiled in oil was exiled to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.

• The Third Persecution, under Trajan, AD 98-117 – Ignatius the bishop of Antioch, Alexander the bishop of Rome, Symeon, Zozimus, and Rufus are martyred. Trajan’s policy was that Christians were to be executed when found, but not to be sought out. Anonymous sources were to be rejected as unreliable and unsound.  

• The Fourth Persecution, under Hadrian, AD 117-138 – Persecution continued along the lines of Trajan, but these purges were sporatic, Telesphorus was martyred.  

• The Fifth Persecution, under Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-180 – Germanicus, Polycarp the bishop of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Pothinus the bishop of Lyon, Felicitus, and Blandina are martyred. Christians are unfairly blamed for natural disasters and other calamities. 

• The Sixth Persecution, under Septimus Severus, AD 202-211 – Victor the bishop of Rome, Leonidas, Irenaeus the bishop of Lyon, Asclepiades the bishop of Antioch, and Perpetua are martyred.  

• The Seventh Persecution, under Maximinus the Tracian, AD 235-236 – Pontianus the bishop of Rome, Pammachius and Quiritus both who served as Roman Senators, Ursula and Hippolitus are martyred. 

• The Eighth Persecution, under Decius, AD 249-251 – Fabianus the bishop of Rome, Alexander of Jerusalem, Nichomachus, Denisa, Julian, Trypho, Respicius, Agatha, Cyril the bishop of Gortyna, Babylas the bishop of Antioch, and Theodora are martyred. Origen the celebrated presbyter of Alexandria was tortured and imprisoned. 

• The Ninth Persecution, under Valerian, AD 257-260 – Rufina, Secunda, Stephen the bishop of Rome, Sixtus the bishop of Rome, Cyprian the bishop of Carthage was exiled and then later martyred, and Fructuosis bishop of Tarragon are martyred.

• The Tenth Persecution, under Diocletian, AD 303-311 – the destruction of churches and the burning of Christian books, 1000’s of Christians were expelled from their homes and many were imprisoned, Sebastian, Romanus, Dorotheus, three sisters Agrape, Chionia, and Irene in Greece, Mauritius,  and Alban are martyred.  

Christian writers throughout the centuries of the Early Church responded to the persecution of Christians by the Romans by challenging their reasons and arguments. One of the most highly skilled defenders of Christianity was Tertullian (AD c.160-c.220). He chided the Romans in his  book Apologia with these scathing words: “If the River Tiber reaches the walls, if the River Nile does not rise to the fields, if the sky does not move or if the earth does, if there is a famine, if there is a plague, the cry is at once: ‘The Christians to the lion!’  What, all of them to one lion?” Clearly, blaming Christians for all of the troubles experienced by the Romans was foolish and ridiculous. Tertullian pointed this out with bold and decisive logic. This line of reasoning, however, did not stop all forms of persecution and martyrdom. It was only in the ever-changing Roman political scene that this brutal policy finally came to an end. 

In AD 313 the Edict of Milan finally brought an official end all of the persecution. J. D. Douglas notes, “Constantine and Licinius, meeting at Milan in January 313, redressed a two-century-old policy of the Roman government towards the Christian Church, so that Christians not only were free to worship as they wished, but were to receive compensation and return of confiscated property—in exchange for the divine favor of the state in its precarious hour.” (J. D. Douglas, New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, 659) In God’s providence the rising threats against the Roman Empire from the barbarians in the north and the east proved to be the driving force behind a change in policy. Rome needed to focus on external threats more than on internal threats.

Moreover, it must be noted that Constantine himself appeared to become a Christian in AD 312 at the battle of Milvian Bridge just outside of Rome. After being instructed by the Lord in a dream, he adopted the sign of the labarum (Chi-Rho = Christ) for all of his soldiers. They fought under this banner and won a decisive victory. Thus any ongoing persecution against Christians would have been contrary to Constantine’s own faith. In the end, Jesus Christ received the glory as His spiritual kingdom continued to spread to every corner of the earth (See: Ps. 72:8; Matt. 16:18; Heb. 12:28-29).  

Sources of Information:  

Bettenson, Henry and Chris Maunder, eds. Documents of the Christian Church. Fourth Edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Boer, Harry R. A Short History of the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976.

Douglas, J. D. ed. New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978.

• “Christology” by Samuel J. Mikolaski
• “Constantine the Great” by David F. Wright
• “Heresy” by Stephen S. Smalley
• “Martyr, Martyrology” by Ralph P. Martin
• “Milan, Edict of” by J. D. Douglas
• “Persecution” by David F. Wells
• “Pliny’s Letter to Trajan” by Peter Toon
• “Rome” by Clyde Curry Smith

Eusebius Pamphilus. The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus. Grand Rapids, MI: Reprint, Baker Book House, 1992.

Foxe, Rev. John (1516-1587), Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, or formally known as Actes and Monumentes, (ed.) William Byron Forbrush, D.D., Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, originally published in English AD 1563, current copyright 1967.

Holmes, Michael W., ed. and trans. The Apostolic Fathers in English. Third Edition; after the earlier version of J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.

Houghton, S. M. Sketches from Church History. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1980.

Richardson, Cyril C., ed. and trans. Early Christian Fathers. Vol. 1 in “The Library of Christian Classics.” Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1953. 

Schaaf, Philip. History of the Christian Church. Volume 2. Fifth Edition. Originally published in 1858. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendricksen Publishers, 1996. 

Walton, Robert C., Chronological & Background Charts of Church History, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986.

Woodbridge, John D. ed. Great Leaders of the Christian Church. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1988.

Workman, Herbert B. Persecution in the Early Church. Bloomington, IN: Warhorn Media, Reprint, 2014.

Dr. Marcus J. Serven, ThM and DMin

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