he Sanhedrin, the Jewish high
court for the enforcement of the law of Moses. From Judaea Christianity
spread to the Jewish _diaspora_ through the missionary activity of the
disciples and other followers of Jesus, particularly the Apostle Paul.
Although the Christian propaganda was not confined to these Jewish
communities, it was among them that the first Christian congregations
arose, and this, with the Jewish origin of the new faith, caused the
Christians to be regarded by the Roman government as a sect of the Jews.
In 49 A. D. Claudius banished the Jews from Rome because of disorders
among them between the Christians and the adherents of the older faith.
Nero's persecution of the Christians in 64 A. D. was, as we have seen, not
undertaken on religious grounds, and was perhaps due to Jewish
instigation. On the whole, the Christians benefited by the attitude of
Rome towards their sect, for it gave them the benefit of the immunities
which the adherents of Judaism enjoyed.

Although the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. brought about the
predominance of the non-Jewish element in the Christian ranks, until the
end of the rule of the Flavians the Roman official world made no
distinction between Jew and Christian. Domitian apparently exacted the
_didrachma_ from both alike. Towards the close of his reign, in 95 A. D.,
this princeps executed or banished a number of Romans of senatorial rank
on charges of atheism or conversion to Judaism. Among the victims were
some who professed Christianity. At the same time the Christian
communities of Asia Minor seem to have suffered a rather serious
persecution on the part of the state. However, this may have been due to
disturbances between the Christian and the non-Christian elements in the
Greek cities, and there is no definite proof that Domitian made the
suppression of Christianity part of the public policy.

*Christianity and the Roman state.* After Domitian, Christians were no
longer liable to the _didrachma_, and therefore lost their claim to the
privileges and exemptions of the Jews. A conflict with the secular power
was rendered inevitable by the very nature of Christianity, which was
non-Roman, non-national, and monotheistic, refusing recognition to the
cults of the state, and denying the divinity of the ruler. The Romans
regarded the imperial cult from the political standpoint and considered
the refusal to recognize the divinity of the princeps as an act of
treason. On the