The Political Causes of the Persecution of Christians in the First Millennium: Historical and Analytical Review

Abstract

From the Ancient to modern times, human history is associated with various forms of violence: wars, repressions, genocides, bullying and religious persecution. At the same time, historically one of the most persecuted religions in the world has been the Christian faith. During the first millennium of its history and regardless of socio-political status, Christianity faced rejection of itself, even to the point of attempts at widespread violent destruction. However, individual persecutors pursued not only religious, but also political aims of persecuting Christians. Already in the Roman Empire, full-scale state persecution was, first of all, not due to the performance of religious-state cult by Christians, which was considered political unreliability. When Christianity became the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the enemies of the empire began to view Christians as a disloyal population. This article will attempt to analyze the first millennium of Christian history precisely from the perspective of the political motivation for the persecution of the Christian population.