| Popis: |
This chapter considers the legal status of Christianity before the first imperially initiated persecution under Decius (249–251). Generally speaking, there are a number of ambiguities when it comes to determining the attitude of Roman law toward Christian communities. Roman officials rarely found themselves in legal situations that would have demanded special legislation toward the Christians. As a result, only a tiny amount of legal protocol had accumulated before the mid-third century for regulating procedure when it came to dealing with Christians. After several exhaustive reviews of Christian and non-Christian sources in the 1960s, against which there have been no successful contradictory arguments, it appears that the Romans did not issue any special legislation against Christians or Christianity. |
