One of the finest books I ever read about Christianity in antiquity is the work by Harold Mattingly titled Christianity in the Roman Empire (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1967). Mattingly considered various reasons why Rome seemed to act vehemently toward Jews and Christians. He posits a number of reasons why diverse waves of persecution occurred and I would recommend that you consult his book to see his argument in context. However, I want to share a couple of pages with you from that work. You can check out the book here: https://archive.org/details/christianityinro0000matt
