other · 125 · Rome
The proconsul of Asia wrote to Hadrian for instructions and the reply, addressed to his successor Minucius Fundanus, survives because Justin attached it to his First Apology and Eusebius copied it out. It does not legalise anything. What it says is that Christians are not to be condemned on clamour and demand alone; that an accuser must come forward and prove an actual offence against the laws; and that anyone bringing such a charge maliciously is to be punished for it, and severely. In practice that made accusation risky and prosecution slow, and for the rest of the second century the church was mostly left alone between local outbreaks. Christian writers quoted it for a hundred years as though it were a charter, which it was not, and this dataset marks that difference: the rescript is a procedural instruction from an emperor who had no interest in Christians beyond keeping provincial courts orderly. Trajan's rescript to Pliny had already set the pattern — do not seek them out, do not accept anonymous denunciations — and Hadrian tightened the second half of it.
What did an emperor say when asked how to handle Christians?
That a mob shouting is not evidence, and a false accuser is to be punished.