Answer:
The emperor Nero attempted to blame a fire in Rome on Christians.
(Beginning with Nero (54-68), the first known incidence of Christian persecution in the Roman Empire occurred under imperial control. Large portions of Rome were destroyed by a massive fire in 64 AD, which also rendered the Roman inhabitants homeless.)
<h2>
Why did the Roman authorities persecute Christians?</h2>
The Romans practiced several gods. They held a variety of gods in worship. As they invaded new territories, they collected gods in bucketfuls and were happy. They then encountered Jews, who did not have several gods. This was atheism in the eyes of the Romans. There were conflicts and uprisings as the Romans' relationship with the Jews steadily deteriorated. Although it troubled the Romans, it wasn't too absurd because they were an isolated people and there weren't many of them to begin with.
Then Jesus and his apostles arrived and transformed everything. Suddenly, you had a Jewish group that was spreading its atheistic gibberish like wildfire and, worse, believed that slaves and freemen were on an equal footing before their token God.
This gave rise to a number of contentious issues. Even in the face of certain death, they resisted accepting the Emperor as a deity. The Roman's mentality was severely disturbed by this. According to numerous sources, Roman officials begged Christians (and Jews) to abandon their atheism for even a small exhibition, but they preferred death. They found it amazing and perplexing that someone would be so devoted to their vocation.
The Christian Way soon gained popularity among many Romans who were deeply inspired. As much as the heroes of the Roman Republic, Christians detested corruption and anarchy. They also had a propensity to speak out vehemently against official corruption. They acquired some vicious adversaries as a result of this.
A political smear campaign was launched by some elites to portray those atheistic Christians as the cause of all tragedies. Nero was arguably the worst of these. He treated them unfairly and punished them for it, to the point that it was a bygone cliché. The Christian Way, however, resisted going away. Roman attitudes toward Christians fluctuated between adoration and hatred for more than 200 years. Then, once Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire and attempted to organize the people, things began to calm down.
