What year did Romans begin to massacre Christians?

Answer 1

The Romans were tolerant of all religions which observed the laws, but were always suspicious of the Greeks who were traditionally plotters. Plotters usually committed a sacrilege (which carried the death penalty) to prevent members of a plot from revealing it, as they would be punished too. The early Christians met in private homes, and so brought suspicion on themselves as plotters, as all honest people did their worship openly in the temples. As a result in the late First Century CE, after the Jews expelled them from their midst (the Christians started out as a sect of Judaism) they were exposed to suspicion and suppression. This ended in the early Second Century when emperor Trajan ordered an end to persecution. However they continued to expose themselves to suspicion of revolution, and brought retaliation for that and a variety of other reasons as not being part of the normal Roman community. The story of massacres is much overblown. In fact when the Christians gained control in the 4th Century CE, they themselves indulged in killings and forced conversions of other religions.