ABSTRACT
The year 64 saw the fire of Rome which proved the cause or pretext of the massacres of Christians and on that account proved to be a date of capital importance in the history of the relations between the church and the Roman Empire. This chapter is devoted to an account of the torments inflicted. The difference in the two descriptions of Christianity given by Pliny, one as he found it after his investigation, and the other as it was described by the apostates, does not amount to a contradiction. As Guignebert has rightly emphasized, Pliny has exaggerated both the extent of Christianity and the amount of damage it had caused to the pagan cults and the trades depending on them as well as the success of his initial measures. The correspondence is interesting because it offers a lifelike picture of the real position of Christianity and the dangers to which Christians continued to be exposed.
