1 Earliest Rome

IT. T H R E A T S T O T H E R O M A N O R D E R
In the mean time, I have employed the following procedure in relation to those who
were denounced to me as Christians. I asked them in person whether they were
Christians. If they confessed it, 1 repeated the question a second and third time,
threatening them with capital punishment; those who persisted, I ordered to be executed.
For I had no hesitation, whatever the nature of their confession, that that stubbornness
and rigid obstinacy should certainly be punished. There were others similarly fanatical
whom, because they were Roman citizens, I have put on the list of persons to be sent to
the city .
As a result of the actual investigation, as often happens, these accusations have spread
rapidly and further types of the trouble have come to light. An anonymous pamphlet was
laid before me containing many people's names. Those mentioned there who denied that
they were or had been Christians, I thought should be released, when they repeated after
me an invocation to the gods and made a supplicatio of wine and incense to your image,
which I had ordered for rhis purpose to be placed with the statues of the gods, and in
addition cursed Christ, all things which those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot
be brought to do.
Others who had been named by an informer said that they were Christians and then
denied it; they had been, but had stopped - some two years before, some longer ago, a
few actually twenty years ago. All [these] too paid homage to your image and the statues
of the gods, and cursed Christ. They claimed that the sum total of their guilt or wrong
doing was the following; they had been accustomed to gather on a fixed day before dawn,
to sing a song in alternate verses to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath,
not for any criminal purpose, but that they should not commit theft, robbery or adultery
that they should nor break contracts, and that they should return money entrusted to
them when called upon. After this ceremony, they said, it had been their practice to
depart and reconvene later to take food, which was however ordinary and harmless; but
they had ceased to do this after my edict, by which in accordance with your official
instructions I had banned political clubs.' This made me believe that it was all the more
essential to find out from two slave serving-women, who were called attendants', what
the truth was, using torture. I discovered nothing worse than a depraved and excessive
superstkio.
Therefore, adjourning the proceedings, I have hastened to consult you. The affair
seems to me worrh consulting you about, especially because of the numbers of those at
risk. Many people of all ages, every status, and both sexes are actually being summoned to
trial and this will continue. The taint of this superstitions permeated not only towns, but
also villages and the countryside; but it can probably be stopped and cured. It is perfectly
clear that temples that had been almost abandoned for a long rime have begun to be
frequented, and sacred rites that bad long lapsed have been taken up again, and [the
meat] of sacrificial animals is on sale everywhere, though until recently almost no buyers
could be found for it. From this it is easy to infer the number of people that can be
reformed, if there is any opportunity for repentance.
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