Throughout the rise of early Christianity in Rome, persecution ranged from commoners to emperors and was a common practice. The unjust oppression of Christians came from the fear of emperors. However, commoners believed that Christians did not respect the rank of the gods. Due to the inferior label assigned to Christians and their "shameful" behavior at that time, the persecution was a continuous sequence. Christianity is a unified religion that required total commitment and faith in early Rome. Christianity developed during the first century after the death of Christ and its rise came with the help of the apostles. The apostles are early Christian teachers who taught the message of Christ and how to reach God through worship. They first taught early Roman Christians to accept Christ as their lord and savior and not the emperor. Pliny, an author lawyer and magistrate of ancient Rome who lived from 61 to 113 C., wrote letters to an emperor named Trajan about the average Sunday worship of a Christian. He writes: “That they were in the habit, on a certain day, of meeting before daylight, and of singing alternately a hymn to Christ, as to a god; and to bind oneself by a sacrament [or an oath] to do nothing evil: but to commit no theft, nor pillage, nor adultery; that they would not break their promises, nor deny what had been deposited with them... “it was their custom to leave and meet again around a common but innocent meal”. The "hymn" he speaks of was linked to the Bible, a physical representation of Christians denying the emperor, and by reciting an oath they were separating themselves from the emperor on a divine level. When Pliny talks about the meal they eat, he explains a traditional Sunday dinner...... middle of paper ... to heal those suffering from illnesses, and in doing so it helped convert many of pagans. However, many Romans were still angry about the current situation in Rome. Not only were they poor, because they were spending money to help their loved ones, but those who were not hospitalized would have had a family member removed from their original religion. Both the pagans and the Christians were looking for someone to blame, but the pagans loyal to the emperor were looking for an easy target, which happened to be the christinas. Most Christians were either slaves or soldiers, and therefore were hardly respectable people in those days. The main reason why emperors persecuted Christians is that historically they have always been hostile to Christians. How could an emperor accept a religion in which he worships Jesus Christ, a Jewish criminal ?.