Burning of Rome

[stormy44]

Today Jinseong in our class taught us the story of "The Burning of Rome."It basically said that when the Roman emperor Nero was blamed for setting a fire in Rome, he quickly passed the blame to Christians. Thousands of innocent Christians were persecuted, and the public's hatred toward Christians worsened.

So, my question is~ out of all groups of people, why do you think Nero chose to blame Christians?

I personally think it's because the general public was already questioning Christianity and some were rejecting the religion. Christianity had reached Rome in the form of an obscure offshoot of Judaism popular among the city's poor and destitute. Members of this religious sect spoke of the coming of a new kingdom and a new king. These views provoked suspicion among the Jewish authorities who rejected the group and fear among the Roman authorities who perceived these sentiments as a threat to the Empire.

[elijahlee]

He needed to find a scapegoat. At the time, Christianity was trying to get on its feet, and many people that were outside of Christianity did not like the Christians. So, naturally, it was easiest and most effective to put the blame on the underdog Christians.

[sarahlee2]

I think it's because during that time, Christians were not viewed with a lot of respect and it didn't seem right to people. Since the Roman Empire was at its height and Greek polytheism was accepted as right, they thought it would be okay to blame the Christians.

[hannahs]

It was because Christians weren't popular in Rome so it was easy for him to blame the whole thing on them.

[joannekim]

I think it was because Christianity was new at that time that it was not popular, and people viewed it with suspicion. In Roman Empire, Greek polytheism was established and sanctioned by government. So Nero could use Christians as scapegoat and blame the fire on them. No one would have defended them anyway, and many people enjoyed watching violent execution of Christians.

[junaen0416]

Christianity was a newly found trend back in Rome and people were starting asking questions about it and being an emperor is not as easy as it seems, not after a major event that burned most of the Roman city. Nero found a way to blame the Christians for starting the fire and I guess he did it for the sake of his image to the public.

[cesar]

i agree with Elijah. It makes sense that Nero would blame the christians. I'm going to compare to something that doesn't make much sense, but at the same time it does (at least in my head). But I think it would be similar if nowadays if this were to happen, the blame would go to a group like Scientology. Because its a group that is getting a lot of attention, and not necessarily a positive one. So a lot of people are skeptical of it; I can definitely see them getting blamed for something like this. It would go on the headlines as "Dangerous cult starts fire in capital", or something of the sort.

[sarahlee4]

Nero blamed the Christians because he's a butthole. I think that in a more serious note, he blamed them because Christians were already not liked or respected in Rome during that time, so if he blamed them, the general majority wouldnt even bother asking further questions.

[sageda]

I think because it deviated from the mythological gods that were prevalent at the time. And I never knew that's how Christianity came to be in Rome. That sounds similar to how Christianity spread in places like Nigeria where the titleless and outcasts accepted the faith first which cause a lot of suspicion and tension between the people. But followers of Abrahamic faiths have always been persecuted and scapegoated so it's not surprise.

[kevin]

the christians were the minority during that time and it did not gain popularity among the public. christianity was not accepted by many romans and they just discriminated christians and so they were the easy target for Nero to blame of.

[edward08]

I never knew that's how Christianity came to be in Rome. That sounds similar to how Christianity spread in places like Nigeria where the titleless and outcasts accepted the faith first which cause a lot of suspicion and tension between the people. But followers of Abrahamic faiths have always been persecuted and scapegoated so it's not surprise.