Why were Christians persecuted in Rome?
The first mass persecutions seem to have been at the hands of Emperor Nero in the year 64, apparently because he needed someone to blame for the burning of Rome and they were simply very convenient. After Nero, neither Vespian nor Titus really bother with the Christians, not finding them the least bit interesting, much less dangerous. Some of the surviving letters of Roman officials provide important information on this topic. In the year 111, Pliny the Younger who was governor of Bithynia wrote to emperor Trajan, wondering what to do with the local Christians. There were so many of them in Bithynai (on the northern coast of present-day Turkey) that pagan temples were being abandoned entirely. He had a list of Christians and, because Christianity was officially illegal, he asked Trajan what to do about them. Trajan’s response explains what standard Roman policy was regarding Christians in the empire. Also, because of it, other officials followed the same policy, making it even more off
