ABSTRACT
On July 17, 180 C.E., twelve christians from the small settlements of Scilli near Carthage stood in the chambers of the governor of North Africa in Carthage. Carrying with them the letters "of a just man named Paul," they were arraigned for being Christians. According to a letter from the Emperor Trajan in 112 C.E. to Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, Christians could be executed just for being Christians, for they were seen as a threat to the state. A variety of attitudes to the Roman Empire was present in the Christian Scriptures. Jacques-Paul Migne's letter to the Romans encouraged Christians to obey proper civic authorities and to pay taxes. Some Christians were Roman soldiers, even though that would have required them to participate in the pagan rituals soldiers normally performed and leading Christians such as Tertullian, Hippolytus of Rome, and Origen opposed Christian participation in military service.
