oot of Judaism. The first mention we have of any Christian persecution is related by Tacitus, who cites 64 A.D. as the year of an attack by Nero. According to this account, written in his Annals (Heichelheim 326) as late as 123 A.D., Nero accused the Christians of burning Rome in order to avert suspicion from himself. However, many modern scholars have doubted the existence of any large Neronian persecution based on the odd failure of contemporary writers such as Petronius, Juvenal or Martial to mention it. Nor was any such persecution mentioned by later Christian writers such as St. Augustine, Lactrantius, or Tertullian, all of whom, as educated men, should have been familiar with Tacitus and aware of the pro-paganda value of such an act by Nero. For these reasons the actual existence of a large Neronian persecution is still open to doubt.
For the next century Christianity developed rapidly with little threat of persecution. However, a showdown was slowly building between the Empire and Christianity as the beliefs of this new religion were bec
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