As Rives makes clear throughout his chapter, the primary goal of Roman religious policy was to protect and maintain public peace and order (190).  In the eyes of many roman citizens and officials, the only way to secure such a peace was through correct religious observance to the gods, thus upholding the pax deorum. Rives describes two classes of religious observance that were viewed as a direct threat to religious peace. The first class is the atheos, which describes those who show insufficient respect to the gods. In contrast to the atheos, those who were defined as superstitio were thought to exhibit improper, unacceptable, incorrect religious behavior (184).  For some romans, superstitio was the worst offense a citizen could make in religious practice. Plutarch even held the opinion that belief in no gods at all is better than belief in gods who are arrogant, captious, and petty (185).  With these attitudes towards religious dissent, it comes as no surprise that Christianity would come to stand at odds with mainstream Roman religio, and by consequence Roman public order.

The Roman perception of early Christianity is best captured by Tacitus’ account of great fire in Rome that occurred under the rule of Nero. Tacitus recalls that “The deadly superstitio was checked for a time only to break out again, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in the capital itself, where all things hideous and shameful collect from everywhere and become all the rage” (Warrior 175). Superstitio is not just offensive or inconvenient for Roman rule, it is described as lethal. With such a view, it makes perfect sense why Christians would serve as a scapegoat for a major disturbance of public order. Interestingly though, Tacitus claims that the Christians charged were not found guilty on the grounds of arson directly, but rather for their “hatred of the human race” (Warrior 175).  Because Roman religious and political life was so closely united, the Christian rejection of Roman religio was seen as a politically subversive act directed not only at the gods, but towards roman citizens and officials as well. In response to these accusations, prominent Christians like Tertullian claim that they have nothing but the well-being of the empire in their mind. He states that on behalf of the well-being (salus) of the emperors, we invoke the eternal God, the true God, the living God… We pray that they may have long life, secure rule, a safe home, strong armies, a faithful senate, honest subjects, and a peaceful world” (Warrior 179-180). Even though Christians don’t observe public cultic practice, it does not mean that they wish to cause any form of political strife or upheaval. In the eyes of Tertullian, it is actually the Christians who should be seen as responsible for upholding roman peace and public order, because they are invoking the one true God. Thus, Roman officials should view Christians as pious and not superstitious.

Despite these arguments form early Christians, Roman policy for Christians remained a reactionary effort to suppress any upheaval they might cause in public order. Trajan himself states that when dealing with Christians “It is not possible to lay down any general rule that could provide a fixed standard” (Warrior 178). Nevertheless, he praises Pliny the Younger for his policy of dealing with Christians as they were brought before him, but never actively seeking them out. This method remained the standard precedent for many years until the persecutions of Decius and Diocletian during the third and early fourth centuries. These changes in policy targeted those men “who set up new-fangled and unheard-of sects in opposition to the older religious practices” (Warrior 183).  While this policy was not exclusive to Christianity, it clearly made them a target to be sought out and suppressed. Interestingly enough, this mentality is maintained even after Constantine’s victory and the Empire-wide acceptance of Christianity; this time, however, the roles have been reversed. Speaking about public policy on cultic practice, Constantius makes his views clear when he states that “all superstitions must be abolished” (Warrior 184).  It is now the old Roman cults that are viewed as superstitio and subversive to public peace and order.