Salvete
I have come across this page which says that there were already witchhunts during the 2nd century BCE. The title of the website: surpressed histories does seem to stire up some doubts of the authenticity of the material, but even so. It might be a good thing to ask if any of you have heard of this before:
http://www.suppressedhistories.net/secret_history/roman_persecution.html
valete
Romulus