Abstract This article challenges the long-established orthodoxy concerning the legal basis of the persecution of Christians under the Roman empire. First, it demonstrates the problems with the current consensus, which holds both that the only extant legal enactment pertinent to the persecution of Christians before Decius is the rescript of Trajan to Pliny, and that Christians were always charged for their name alone. Second, it tests an alternative hypothesis, that Christians could be charged with multiple crimes, as part of the routine litigious culture of the empire, and that this was periodically exacerbated by legal enactments that did not target Christians but could be mobilised against them.
James Corke-Webster (Sat,) studied this question.