Over the past two centuries, historians have studied and given several theories about how early Christianity developed in ancient Rome. An estimated 100,000 Christians were killed between 30 and 313 CE (Christian era). The main cause of death was the Roman emperors. Christians in ancient Rome were often brutally punished as the rise of the Christian religion threatened to overtake other religions and strip emperors of power. Christians often received severe punishments for their beliefs. During the first centuries CE, if someone was found to be a Christian, they were punished and prosecuted. In fact, it took a long time for the Roman authorities, who were hesitant about what they were going to do with this new “cult”. Their punishment was often death, but sometimes they escaped by simply being thrown in prison instead of being tortured. However, there were certain periods when Christians were not punished or put to death. Here is an example of a time of peace offered to the people by the emperor. This peace, or tolerance, varied from emperor to emperor as they all had different opinions on the situation. (At the time, Jews and Christians were not considered different from each other and only later did the two religions separate and officially become two separate religions.) A Greek papyrus from British Museum wrote: "I implore you, the Alexandrians, to behave with tolerance and kindness towards the Jews, since they have lived in the same city as you for many years, and not to abuse the religious rights that they practice in the worship of their god, but to allow them to observe their own customs. But without reservation, I order the Jews not to agitate for more indulgence than they enjoyed in the past, and not to send middle of paper...... time has not not rained, pushing them to act to eliminate this threat. Religion also threatened the principle of religious tolerance. The principle of religious tolerance had long kept Rome at peace in the face of religious wars (Roman religion). It laid out a set of rules to prevent religions from doing certain things, which the Christian religion did not follow. Without the religious foundation on which the Roman Empire was based, the emperor would lose most, if not all, of his power. The Christianity of ancient Rome threatened to take power away from emperors and overtake other religions. This led to the brutal persecution of many Christians. The Romans attempted to eliminate the threat of Christianity to keep their empire and religion strong. The massacre of Christians lasted from 30 to 313 CE. An estimated 100,000 Christians were killed during this period..