"This refusal to join in any of the state's religious practices was the really irreconcilable problem: on one occasion during the reign of the benevolent Emperor Marcus Aurelius the Christians gave rise to a new wave of hate against them as they refused to participate in the religious rites aimed at checking an epidemic of plague which was decimating the population. The Emperor had little choice but to persecute thousands of them to a hideous death in the Amphitheatre and for as much as he hated the gladiator shows he attended out of a sense of duty."
see the word christian in your cut and paste above?
how could a christian exist ,if it started when you said in your other cut and paste?remember about constantine?wasnt he much later?
