000162478 001__ 162478 000162478 005__ 20251017144655.0 000162478 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.3390/histories5030038 000162478 0248_ $$2sideral$$a145010 000162478 037__ $$aART-2025-145010 000162478 041__ $$aeng 000162478 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-7816-0050$$aGarcía-Madurga, Miguel-Ángel$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000162478 245__ $$aResistance of an emerging community: early christians facing adversity 000162478 260__ $$c2025 000162478 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000162478 5203_ $$aSituated at the intersection of social history and psychology, this study examines how early Christian communities in Bithynia-Pontus navigated the persecution narrated in Pliny the Younger’s Epistle X 96. Through systematic textual analysis of Latin and Greek sources—triangulated with comparative evidence from Tacitus and corroborating archaeological data—and interpreted through Conservation-of-Resources and Social Identity theoretical frameworks, we reconstruct the repertoire of collective coping strategies mobilised under Roman repression. Our findings show that ritualised dawn assemblies, mutual economic assistance, and a theologically grounded expectation of post-mortem vindication converted external coercion into internal cohesion; these practices neutralised informer threat, sustained group morale, and ultimately expanded Christian networks across Asia Minor. Moreover, Pliny’s ad hoc judicial improvisations reveal the governor’s own bounded rationality, underscoring the reciprocal nature of stress between the persecutor and persecuted. By mapping the dynamic interaction between imperial policy and subaltern agency, the article clarifies why limited, locally triggered violence consolidated rather than extinguished the nascent movement. The analysis contributes a theoretically informed, evidence-based account of religious-minority resilience, enriching both early Christian historiography and broader debates on group survival under systemic duress. 000162478 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es 000162478 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000162478 7102_ $$14012$$2650$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Direcc.Organiza.Empresas$$cÁrea Organización de Empresas 000162478 773__ $$g5, 3 (2025), 38 [21 pp.]$$pHistories (Basel)$$tHistories (Basel)$$x2409-9252 000162478 8564_ $$s428105$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/162478/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000162478 8564_ $$s2454276$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/162478/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000162478 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:162478$$particulos$$pdriver 000162478 951__ $$a2025-10-17-14:37:49 000162478 980__ $$aARTICLE