Name the religious group persecuted by the Romans before Constantine?

Answer 1

By and large the Romans were tolerant of other religions and often absorbed concepts and deities from the conquered peoples. Although Roman paganism was the state religion before the time of Emperor Constantine I, other religions gained a significant foothold in the empire. Judaism had spread throughout the eastern empire and even to Rome and Spain. Mithraism flourished, later to be supplanted by worship of Sol Invictus. The emerging mystery religions of the east also flourished. Christianity, in all its forms was generally accepted and was gaining in strength.

The one requirement that the Romans made of the conquered people was that they worshipped the Roman gods, but otherwise they were permitted to continue with their ancestral worship. As Judaism was monotheistic, the Jews were unable to meet this requirement, and were granted an exemption. At first, Christianity was seen as a sect of Judaism and thus shared in this exemption. By the end of the first century, the split between Christianity and Judaism was permanent, and Christians faced the possibility of having to worship the Roman gods. Regardless of the legal position, the emperors largely ignored the Christians and instructed that they not be bothered unless they brought attention on themselves.

By the third century, there was some concern that Christians were not loyal to the Roman state and were fostering disunity in the empire. This brought about the persecution of 249-251 and the "great persecution" initiated by Emperor Diocletian in 303 CE, and lasting until 305 in the West, but continuing until 311 in the East.

Another religious group with ties to Christianity was Manichaeanism. In the minds of the Romans, this was associated by with Rome's great rival and opponent, the Persian Empire. As a consequent, Manichaean worship was not permitted in the early Roman Empire.