Abstract
The paper examines the position of the Early Christian Church in the Roman Empire in the fi rst quarter of the second century AD in relations of an activity of the Early Christian apologists. The author researches a problem of the possibility of apologists’ appeal to the Roman representatives including the Roman Emperors under persecutions. Based on an analysis of Pliny’s letter to Trajan and a rescript of the latter, the author concludes that there was no General Law forbidding the Christianity in this time; the persecutions largely were sporadic. The reason for the persecution described by Pliny could be the perception by the governor of Christianity as a dangerous superstition. Trajan’s rescript could not be a General Law itself, neither in form nor in content. In the conditions of a legal ambiguity of the Church in the Empire some Christians could appeal direct to the emperor. Primarily this possibility was given to the Roman citizens as follows from Pliny’s case. Therefore, the author concludes that there were no legal obstacles for appeal of the Early Christian apologists to the emperor. Information about the fi rst Christian apologists belongs to the time of the rule of Hadrian, the successor of Trajan. “The Chronicle” by Eusebius relates their activity with emergence of Hadrian’s rescript addressed to the governor of Asia and alleviated the position of the Churches on this territory. The author concludes that the Christian apologists could refer to the Princeps before publication of the rescript, but Emperor’s decision to compose the rescript was hardly connected with their appeal.
Keywords
Roman Empire, Early Christianity, Church, Apologetics, Trajan, Hadrian, Pliny the Younger.
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