# Why Rome Persecuted Christians

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 8 Oct 2026, 58 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75560597/why_rome_persecuted_christians_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3

Journey into the Roman Empire and explore why Christians sometimes faced suspicion, discrimination, imprisonment, and execution during the first centuries of Christianity. This episode examines the complex relationship between the growing Christian movement and Roman society, separating historical evidence from later traditions and popular portrayals of persecution. Discover how Christianity emerged within the religious and political world of the Roman Empire. Explore the religious diversity of Roman society, the importance of traditional rituals, and the role of public religious practices in maintaining relationships between communities, cities, and the Roman state. Examine why some Roman authorities viewed Christians with suspicion. Christian refusal to participate in certain traditional religious rituals, their exclusive devotion to one God, and their distinct communal practices could create tensions in a society where religion was closely connected with family life, civic identity, and public loyalty. The episode explores some of the earliest documented persecutions, including the persecution under Emperor Nero following the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Discover what ancient sources actually tell us about these events and why historians must be cautious when reconstructing the scale and nature of persecution from limited evidence. Travel through the second and third centuries and examine how Roman authorities responded to Christians in different regions. Explore the cases of Pliny the Younger and Emperor Trajan, the persecutions under later emperors, and the changing legal and political circumstances that affected Christian communities across the empire. Go beyond the image of constant persecution. Christians were not continuously hunted throughout the Roman Empire, and periods of relative tolerance alternated with episodes of official repression. Discover how local officials, imperial policies, political instability, popular suspicion, and accusations against Christians could influence whether persecution occurred. The story reaches a major turning point during the third century and the Great Persecution under Diocletian and his successors. Explore why the Roman government attempted to enforce religious conformity on an imperial scale and how Christian communities responded to imprisonment, confiscation, exile, and martyrdom. Drawing on Roman historians, Christian writings, inscriptions, legal texts, archaeological evidence, and modern scholarship, this episode examines the complicated relationship between Christianity and Rome while separating documented events from later legends surrounding the martyrs. Narrated with a calm, human voice, this immersive journey is perfect for history enthusiasts, Roman history lovers, religious history audiences, early Christianity enthusiasts, documentary listeners, relaxation, or listening before sleep. Discover how a small religious movement survived centuries of tension with the Roman state and eventually became one of the most influential traditions in the ancient world.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: A question. Why would the mighty Roman Empire, known for
[0:07] Speaker 1: its generally tolerant stance on a multitude of gods and cults,
[0:12] Speaker 1: single out and viciously persecute a small sect of devotees
[0:17] Speaker 1: of a crucified Judean? It's pretty puzzling, isn't it? The
[0:23] Speaker 1: Roman persecution of early Christians was not a single event,
[0:28] Speaker 1: but rather a series of confrontations that unfolded over several centuries.
[0:34] Speaker 1: In AD 64, for example, the infamous Emperor Nero famously
[0:39] Speaker 1: blamed the great fire of Rome on the Christians, therefore
[0:44] Speaker 1: subjecting them to horrific punishments. And then we have the
[0:50] Speaker 1: historian Tacitus, who describes how Nero, quote, inflicted the most
[0:55] Speaker 1: exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations. called
[1:02] Speaker 1: Christians by the populace. Thus the Christians were torn by dogs, crucified,
[1:11] Speaker 1: burned alive to serve as nightly illumination in Nero's gardens.
[1:17] Speaker 1: Even the Roman onlookers, initially inclined to hate this obscure group,
[1:23] Speaker 1: felt pity, sensing that the emperor's cruelty was excessive and unjustified.
[1:31] Speaker 1: And such vivid episodes compel us to ask, why did
[1:35] Speaker 1: the Romans view the Christian faith as a threat deserving
[1:39] Speaker 1: such brutal suppression? It's exactly what we're going to explore today. Chronologically, mainly.
[1:48] Speaker 1: From the persecution of early Christians from its beginning under
[1:51] Speaker 1: the first imperial dynasty, through to the great persecution of
[1:56] Speaker 1: the early fourth century. We'll begin by examining Roman attitudes
[2:00] Speaker 1: towards religion in general, and then we can understand the
[2:04] Speaker 1: foundation on which Christianity emerged. Then, moving on to key
[2:09] Speaker 1: historical moments, from Nero's scapegoating of Christians to the empire-wide
[2:15] Speaker 1: edicts of later emperors, we'll trace how and why Roman
[2:20] Speaker 1: policies evolved. Along the way, we're going to consider both
[2:25] Speaker 1: Roman and Christian perspectives. There's two sides to every story.
[2:31] Speaker 1: The Roman authorities' rationale, who saw Christians as disloyal or dangerous,
[2:38] Speaker 1: and the experiences and responses of Christians, who endured official
[2:42] Speaker 1: suspicion and violence. We're going to look at direct quotations
[2:47] Speaker 1: from the ancient sources, Roman historians, imperial edicts, Christian apologists.
[2:53] Speaker 1: That's what our analysis is grounded in. And by the end,
[2:58] Speaker 1: I think we'll have a nuanced understanding of the reasons
[3:01] Speaker 1: behind why Roman persecution of Christians, appreciating the collision of
[3:06] Speaker 1: religious principles, political expediency, and cultural misunderstandings, was so brutal
[3:14] Speaker 1: and also grimly fascinating. But where are my manners? Welcome
[3:22] Speaker 1: to the channel. If you're a newcomer, good to meet you.
[3:25] Speaker 1: For those returning, good to see you again. For those
[3:28] Speaker 1: who have not clicked the subscribe button, I invite you
[3:31] Speaker 1: to do it. It's right next to the like button.
[3:34] Speaker 1: How convenient is that? And thank you to those who
[3:38] Speaker 1: are supporting on the Patreon and have checked out the
[3:40] Speaker 1: merch store with all of its interesting goodies. Now, with
[3:46] Speaker 1: the customary introductions and begging out of the way, let
[3:50] Speaker 1: us begin. We go all the way back to those
[3:53] Speaker 1: ancient times. So we begin to grasp why Christianity aroused
[4:02] Speaker 1: such hostility and fear. And in doing that, we have
[4:07] Speaker 1: to understand how Romans traditionally approached foreign religions. You see,
[4:13] Speaker 1: the Roman Empire, they were polytheistic and generally pretty inclusive.
[4:21] Speaker 1: It absorbed and tolerated a wide variety of cults, gods,
[4:25] Speaker 1: religious practices across its vast territories. Of course, this is
[4:31] Speaker 1: as long as these gods did not disrupt public order
[4:34] Speaker 1: or loyalty to the state. That was the caveat. As
[4:38] Speaker 1: long as they weren't doing that, or Rome, more often
[4:41] Speaker 1: than not, permitted them to function. In practice, this meant
[4:46] Speaker 1: that conquered peoples could continue worshipping their own gods, without
[4:51] Speaker 1: really any change, often identifying them as with Roman deities.
[4:56] Speaker 1: in a process known as Interpretatio Romana. For example, the
[5:02] Speaker 1: Egyptian goddess Isis, the Persian Mithras, and countless local gods
[5:07] Speaker 1: were worshipped openly in the Empire alongside Jupiter and Mars.
[5:13] Speaker 1: The Roman mindset was pretty pragmatic. More gods could only
[5:16] Speaker 1: help maintain the Pax Deorum, divine favour, and that was
[5:21] Speaker 1: something that Rome sought to preserve. Roman tolerance had its limits.
[5:31] Speaker 1: The state distinguished between religio, legitimate proper worship, and superstitio.
[5:39] Speaker 1: We don't need to translate that, don't we? Excessive or
[5:43] Speaker 1: deviant forms of religious practice. But who's making those sorts
[5:48] Speaker 1: of distinctions? You see, traditional Roman cults and those formally
[5:53] Speaker 1: accepted by the state fell under religio, But in contrast,
[5:58] Speaker 1: rituals that seemed strange, new, or threatening to social order
[6:06] Speaker 1: could be branded as superstitio. A negative term, of course,
[6:11] Speaker 1: implying impious or even dangerous belief. Notably, secretive or fanatical
[6:18] Speaker 1: sects arouse suspicion. A famous example often cited by historians
[6:23] Speaker 1: occurred in 186 B.C., when the Senate brutally suppressed the
[6:28] Speaker 1: Bacchanalian cult, that is, worshippers of Bacchus or Dionysus, due
[6:33] Speaker 1: to reports of scandalous riots and conspiracy. This precedent illustrated
[6:40] Speaker 1: that when the Romans perceived a cult as subversive or immoral,
[6:45] Speaker 1: they didn't hesitate to ban it. Of course, it's all
[6:50] Speaker 1: in the name of public morals and security. And so
[6:55] Speaker 1: against this backdrop, we have Judaism, which held a unique
[6:59] Speaker 1: place in the Roman world. You see, the Jews were
[7:03] Speaker 1: a bit different. They worshipped one god exclusively, refusing to
[7:08] Speaker 1: honour the other gods or the emperor's divine spirit. And
[7:13] Speaker 1: this exclusivity was unusual. Yet Rome largely respected Judaism as
[7:19] Speaker 1: an ancient national tradition, a religio licita. permitted religion. And
[7:28] Speaker 1: Jews were generally exempted from participating in the imperial cult,
[7:32] Speaker 1: as long as they paid their taxes and prayed for
[7:35] Speaker 1: the emperor's well-being. Still, if you know your history, occasional
[7:41] Speaker 1: tensions flared, especially if Jewish practices seemed to challenge Roman authority.
[7:46] Speaker 1: Under Emperor Claudius, a disturbance involving Jews and Christus led
[7:54] Speaker 1: to an expulsion of Jews, likely including Jewish Christians from
[7:58] Speaker 1: the capital. It is in this context of Roman pragmatic tolerance,
[8:05] Speaker 1: but sensitivity to perceived subversion, that Christianity first appeared. Initially
[8:12] Speaker 1: regarded as just another sect of Judaism, the Christian movement
[8:17] Speaker 1: began in Judea, and quickly spread through the eastern Mediterranean.
[8:23] Speaker 1: As long as Christians were seen as just another offshoot
[8:27] Speaker 1: of Judaism, they benefited from Judaism's protected status. But critical
[8:35] Speaker 1: differences soon drew Roman attention. Unlike mainstream Judaism, Christianity eagerly
[8:44] Speaker 1: sought converts from all ethnic groups, spreading in cities all
[8:49] Speaker 1: across the empire. Moreover, Christians' refusal to participate in Roman
[8:54] Speaker 1: civic religion, to sacrifice to the gods, or acknowledge the
[8:59] Speaker 1: emperor's divinity, that would come to be seen as a
[9:02] Speaker 1: direct challenge to Roman religious policy. What the Romans at
[9:06] Speaker 1: first misunderstood or ignored, this tiny little group, by the
[9:12] Speaker 1: mid-first century, became a target of suspicion. The first recorded
[9:22] Speaker 1: conflict between the Roman state and the nascent Christian movement
[9:27] Speaker 1: occurred under Emperor Claudius around 49 AD. The Roman biographer
[9:32] Speaker 1: Suetonius notes in his Life of Claudius, which I do
[9:36] Speaker 1: recommend too, Suetonius is fantastic, that the emperor expelled Jews
[9:42] Speaker 1: from Rome since they were constantly rioting at the instigation
[9:47] Speaker 1: of Crestus. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And indeed, most scholars
[9:54] Speaker 1: interpret Christus as a likely reference to Christ. Latin writers
[9:59] Speaker 1: often confuse the spelling, suggesting that disputes between Jews and
[10:04] Speaker 1: Christian believers in Rome had become somewhat disruptive. And disruption
[10:11] Speaker 1: to the harmony is not good. If so, the Roman
[10:16] Speaker 1: solution was characteristically pragmatic. Claudia simply banished the people who
[10:22] Speaker 1: were causing public disorder. Get rid of the problem by
[10:27] Speaker 1: just removing it. It's significant that Suetonius does not distinguish
[10:32] Speaker 1: Christians from Jews in this episode. The implication is that
[10:36] Speaker 1: Romans still viewed Christians as part of the Jewish community.
[10:43] Speaker 1: The measure was not a grand ideological persecution, but more
[10:47] Speaker 1: of like a police action, a move on order to
[10:53] Speaker 1: restore civic peace. Nevertheless, it's telling that already barely two
[11:00] Speaker 1: decades after Christianity's founding, strife associated with the new group
[11:06] Speaker 1: had drawn imperial intervention. But a far more infamous event
[11:11] Speaker 1: soon followed under Emperor Nero. In AD 64, a catastrophic
[11:17] Speaker 1: fire consumed much of Rome. Rumours swirled that Nero himself
[11:24] Speaker 1: had caused the blaze. He had a reputation. Facing mounting
[11:31] Speaker 1: public anger, a scapegoat had to be found. He targeted
[11:36] Speaker 1: the Christians, likely because they were a small and unpopular
[11:40] Speaker 1: minority in Rome. And rumours about their abominations were already
[11:47] Speaker 1: in circulation. Tacitus describes the scene in chilling detail as follows.
[11:54] Speaker 1: To get rid of the report of arson, Nero fastened
[11:57] Speaker 1: the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a
[12:00] Speaker 1: class hated for their abominations, called the Christians by the populace.
[12:06] Speaker 1: The choice of victim reveals much about Roman attitudes too.
[12:10] Speaker 1: The Christians were hated for their abominations. Now that is
[12:14] Speaker 1: a reflection of the wild rumours accusing them of monstrous practices.
[12:20] Speaker 1: We're talking about cannibalism and even accusations of incest due
[12:26] Speaker 1: to misunderstandings of the Eucharist and Christians calling each other
[12:30] Speaker 1: brother and sister. They were already seen as an immoral
[12:37] Speaker 1: sect even before any official policy was set up against them.
[12:43] Speaker 1: Rumours People were talking. Of course, Nero's persecution was brutal,
[12:51] Speaker 1: to say the least. Tacitus recalls, those who confessed of
[12:56] Speaker 1: being Christian were arrested, and an immense multitude was convicted.
[13:01] Speaker 1: Not so much of the crime of setting fire to
[13:03] Speaker 1: the city as of hatred against mankind. And that phrase,
[13:10] Speaker 1: hatred against mankind, odium humani generis, encapsulates how alien Christians
[13:18] Speaker 1: appeared to the Roman society. Their refusal to participate and
[13:24] Speaker 1: fit in to common social and religious life led to
[13:28] Speaker 1: the charge that they just were kind of misanthropes who
[13:33] Speaker 1: hated the rest of humanity and did not want to
[13:36] Speaker 1: get along with anyone. Now the punishments were ghastly. Some
[13:41] Speaker 1: Christians were dressed in animal skins and torn apart by dogs.
[13:47] Speaker 1: Others were crucified. Kind of irony. And many were burned
[13:52] Speaker 1: alive at night, as we said, serving as those human
[13:56] Speaker 1: torches to light the imperial gardens. While these atrocities satisfied
[14:01] Speaker 1: the bloodlust of some, even Tacitus, who was certainly no
[14:05] Speaker 1: friend of the Christians, we have to say, notes that
[14:08] Speaker 1: pity arose because the victims seemed to be sacrificed to
[14:10] Speaker 1: glut one man's cruelty. rather than to serve in any
[14:14] Speaker 1: public interest or good. And the excess of Nero's cruelty
[14:20] Speaker 1: backfired somewhat, eliciting sympathy for the Christians as martyrs. But
[14:27] Speaker 1: it is crucial to understand that Nero's crackdown, though horrific, sure,
[14:33] Speaker 1: was largely a localized response to a specific crisis, i.e.
[14:39] Speaker 1: the Great Fire. There was no empire-wide edict or law
[14:44] Speaker 1: at this point declaring Christianity illegal. Pseudonius, writing a few
[14:50] Speaker 1: decades later, mentions quite matter-of-factly that punishment was inflicted upon
[14:56] Speaker 1: the Christians, a class of men given to a new
[14:59] Speaker 1: and mischievous superstition. There's that word again, superstition. Interestingly, Suetonius
[15:08] Speaker 1: lists this among Nero's various administrative actions, separate from the fire,
[15:13] Speaker 1: implying that even aside from the incident of the great fire,
[15:18] Speaker 1: the emperor had already taken a dim view of Christians.
[15:23] Speaker 1: Now that label, superstition, is telling. To Roman minds, Christianity
[15:29] Speaker 1: was not a legitimate religio, but, as we've said, an
[15:33] Speaker 1: illicit superstitio. It was new. brand new, and thus inherently suspect.
[15:43] Speaker 1: It seemed to have came out of nowhere, and Romans
[15:46] Speaker 1: revered antiquity and religion. The deeper the roots, the better.
[15:53] Speaker 1: But it was also mischievous, and seen as dangerous in
[15:56] Speaker 1: its potential effects on social harmony. Roman writers of the
[16:00] Speaker 1: late first century thus solidify an image of Christianity as
[16:04] Speaker 1: a strange and pernicious cult, Still, it's important to note
[16:10] Speaker 1: that after Nero's purge, there was no evidence of an
[16:13] Speaker 1: official campaign against Christians for some time. The Flavian emperors,
[16:19] Speaker 1: that being Vespasian, Titus and Domitian in the years 69
[16:22] Speaker 1: to 96, did not issue general laws against Christians. However,
[16:28] Speaker 1: there were isolated cases that hinted continued animosity. Emperor Domitian,
[16:36] Speaker 1: in the 90s AD, is sometimes credited with persecuting Christians,
[16:42] Speaker 1: though the evidence is a little murky about this, and
[16:46] Speaker 1: it might have even been exaggerated by later Christian writers.
[16:50] Speaker 1: Both sides are known for exaggerating things a little bit
[16:54] Speaker 1: in these early days. But what we do know from
[16:58] Speaker 1: the Roman historian Cassius Dio is that Domitian executed or
[17:03] Speaker 1: exiled several members of the Roman aristocracy on charges of impiety.
[17:08] Speaker 1: or another word for it being atheism, a term often
[17:12] Speaker 1: applied to those who rejected the Roman gods. Dio writes
[17:18] Speaker 1: that under Domitian, the charge brought against them both was
[17:22] Speaker 1: that of atheism, and the charge on which many others
[17:26] Speaker 1: who drifted into Jewish ways were condemned. One of those
[17:30] Speaker 1: executed was Flavius Clemens. That was the emperor's cousin, believe
[17:35] Speaker 1: it or not. His wife was up on charges too, Domitilla,
[17:41] Speaker 1: but she wasn't executed, just banished. This phrase likely included
[17:47] Speaker 1: converts to Judaism and Christianity too. The Roman authorities refusing
[17:53] Speaker 1: to worship Rome's gods was just atheism, effectively treason against
[17:58] Speaker 1: the state's religious order. Thus, even absent a large-scale persecution,
[18:06] Speaker 1: we see that the stage is certainly set. Christians, often
[18:10] Speaker 1: indistinguishable from Jews and Roman eyes at the time, were
[18:14] Speaker 1: liable to punishment for what Romans perceived as a rejection
[18:18] Speaker 1: of the state's gods and customs. By the end of
[18:21] Speaker 1: the first century, a pattern had certainly emerged. Christianity was
[18:26] Speaker 1: no longer shielded under the umbrella of Jewish protection in
[18:30] Speaker 1: the Roman mind. It was a distinct, new superstition. still small,
[18:38] Speaker 1: but steadily growing, viewed with a mix of curiosity and contempt.
[18:45] Speaker 1: Roman actions against the Christians so far, Claudius' expulsion, Nero's
[18:51] Speaker 1: savage pogrom, Domitian's execution of the sympathizing nobles, they were
[18:57] Speaker 1: sporadic and tied to specific circumstances. There was not yet
[19:02] Speaker 1: a uniform empire-wide policy established That would develop in the
[19:06] Speaker 1: second century, as Roman governors and emperors had to grapple
[19:11] Speaker 1: more directly with the question, what do we do about
[19:16] Speaker 1: the Christians? And so, in the second century, Christians spread
[19:24] Speaker 1: further and further throughout the Roman Empire, and their presence
[19:29] Speaker 1: increasingly came to the attention of the officials. One of
[19:34] Speaker 1: the most illuminating snapshots of Roman policy and attitudes from
[19:37] Speaker 1: the period comes from a certain correspondence between Pliny the Younger,
[19:41] Speaker 1: who was a provincial governor, and Emperor Trajan himself, around
[19:47] Speaker 1: AD 112. Pliny, the governor of Bithynia Pontus, around modern-day Turkey,
[19:55] Speaker 1: encountered Christians in his province and was unsure of what
[19:59] Speaker 1: to do with them. His letters, which he published as
[20:03] Speaker 1: part of the official correspondence, reveal a Roman official attempting
[20:07] Speaker 1: to apply reason and Roman law to a new and
[20:11] Speaker 1: perplexing situation. Then he writes to Trajan that he had
[20:17] Speaker 1: never participated in trials of Christians, and therefore was uncertain
[20:22] Speaker 1: what offences it is to practice or punish or investigate,
[20:28] Speaker 1: and to what extent. His uncertainty shows that there was
[20:33] Speaker 1: no clear legal precedent. Christianity was simply not covered by
[20:38] Speaker 1: a specific statute. Yet Christians were being denounced to him
[20:42] Speaker 1: as potentially criminal. But what laws were they breaking? Pliny's
[20:47] Speaker 1: main questions were, is simply being a Christian a punishable crime?
[20:53] Speaker 1: Or do we only punish specific legal acts committed by Christians?
[20:58] Speaker 1: Whether the name itself without offences, or only the offences
[21:02] Speaker 1: associated with the name are to be punished, was, as
[21:05] Speaker 1: Pliny puts it, the crux of the matter, no pun intended.
[21:12] Speaker 1: In the absence of guidance, Pliny improvised a procedure. He
[21:17] Speaker 1: interrogated those who were accused of being Christians, and if
[21:21] Speaker 1: they persisted in avowing Christianity after repeated questionings and repeated warnings,
[21:28] Speaker 1: he simply ordered them to be executed. If they denied it,
[21:34] Speaker 1: and especially if they proved their loyalty by offering incense
[21:38] Speaker 1: to the Roman gods and cursing Christ, then he would
[21:42] Speaker 1: release them. Roman citizens among the accused were sent to
[21:46] Speaker 1: Rome for trial. Pliny justified this approach by reasoning that
[21:53] Speaker 1: whatever the nature of their greed, stubbornness, and inflexible obstinacy,
[21:59] Speaker 1: surely deserves to be punished. This remark is extremely revealing,
[22:05] Speaker 1: don't you think? To Pliny, and indeed to many Romans too,
[22:10] Speaker 1: the most offensive thing about Christians was their stubbornness, the
[22:15] Speaker 1: unyielding refusal to bend the knee to authority by performing
[22:19] Speaker 1: such a simple act of reverence to the gods. Such
[22:24] Speaker 1: defiance of Roman social norms, the refusal to show loyalty
[22:28] Speaker 1: to the emperor and the community by a token act
[22:31] Speaker 1: of worship, struck officials as a dangerous and frankly rude
[22:36] Speaker 1: form of civil disobedience. Even if Christians were not violent revolutionaries,
[22:42] Speaker 1: their principled stubbornness undermined the uniformity of devotion that the
[22:48] Speaker 1: Romans believed held the entire empire together. And so, as
[22:54] Speaker 1: Pliny investigated further, he discovered that the Christians of Bithynia were,
[22:59] Speaker 1: in fact, rather innocuous in their own activities. Those who
[23:05] Speaker 1: recanted told him that their meetings were, on a fixed
[23:09] Speaker 1: day before dawn, to sing a hymn to Christ as
[23:13] Speaker 1: to God, and to bind themselves by oath not to
[23:17] Speaker 1: commit crimes, but to live morally. Furthermore, they added that
[23:21] Speaker 1: their gatherings ended with a common meal of ordinary harmless food,
[23:26] Speaker 1: and that they had ceased, even this practice, after Pliny
[23:30] Speaker 1: banned secret societies. Eager to verify this, Pliny even put
[23:36] Speaker 1: two female Christian servants to torture, and discovered nothing else
[23:41] Speaker 1: but depraved, excessive superstition. In Latin, Pliny calls it superstitio
[23:48] Speaker 1: prava emodica, reiterating that the Roman view that Christianity was irrational,
[23:55] Speaker 1: debased superstition, not a valid religious belief. In the eyes
[24:01] Speaker 1: of Pliny, the issue was not any concrete crime, but
[24:05] Speaker 1: the essence of the group's belief and refusal to conform.
[24:11] Speaker 1: But Pliny was also alarmed at how Christianity was spreading.
[24:15] Speaker 1: He notes that many people of every age, class, and
[24:19] Speaker 1: even of both sexes were implicated, and that, quote, The
[24:24] Speaker 1: contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities,
[24:28] Speaker 1: but also to the villages and farms. This language of disease, contagion, interesting,
[24:34] Speaker 1: isn't it? It again reflects that view that the Romans
[24:38] Speaker 1: had of Christianity as socially infectious, and infection need to
[24:43] Speaker 1: be checked for the health of a society. But it's
[24:48] Speaker 1: not all doom and gloom. On the bright side, Pliny
[24:52] Speaker 1: reports that as a result of his actions, the trend
[24:55] Speaker 1: could be reversed. Pagan temples that had been almost deserted
[25:00] Speaker 1: were being frequented again, and that the market for sacrificial
[25:04] Speaker 1: animals had seen somewhat of a rebound. In other words,
[25:08] Speaker 1: many lapsed Christians returned to the civic religion when pressured.
[25:13] Speaker 1: Exactly the outcome that the Roman state wanted. Trajans replied
[25:19] Speaker 1: to Pliny, set a pretty important precedent. The emperor praised
[25:24] Speaker 1: his handling of the situation and provided some brief guidelines.
[25:29] Speaker 1: Christians are not to be hunted down actively, but if
[25:33] Speaker 1: they are denounced and refused to recant, they have to
[25:36] Speaker 1: be punished. Importantly, Trajan added that if a suspected Christian
[25:42] Speaker 1: demonstrated repentance by worshipping Roman gods, then he shall obtain
[25:47] Speaker 1: a pardon through repentance. Anonymous denunciations were to be disregarded,
[25:53] Speaker 1: by the way, to prevent malicious false accusations. Trajan's rescript
[26:01] Speaker 1: essentially made official a de facto policy. Christianity was a
[26:07] Speaker 1: punishable offence. The very name Christian was grounds for punishment,
[26:13] Speaker 1: but the state would not actively seek out Christians or
[26:16] Speaker 1: conduct a kind of witch hunt to find them. The
[26:20] Speaker 1: policy aimed to balance pragmatism with principle. The Roman government
[26:24] Speaker 1: did not want to devote endless resources to ferreting out
[26:27] Speaker 1: every believer, nor did it wish to needlessly start creating martyrs.
[26:35] Speaker 1: But it also insisted that the imperial cult and Roman
[26:40] Speaker 1: gods be respected in public. Outright defiance of that rule
[26:45] Speaker 1: could not be tolerated. Christians thereby existed in a precarious
[26:50] Speaker 1: legal grey zone. Effectively, they were always potentially criminals if
[26:56] Speaker 1: someone chose to accuse them. Living under the threat of
[26:59] Speaker 1: sudden denunciation, it's not good for anybody, isn't it? The
[27:04] Speaker 1: Pliny Trajan correspondence shows persecution in practice on the ground.
[27:10] Speaker 1: Not continuous violent oppression, but a series of procedures triggered
[27:15] Speaker 1: by local complaints. It also shows a key reason for
[27:19] Speaker 1: Roman persecution, the Christians' refusal to participate in the state
[27:24] Speaker 1: religion that was seen as a denial of Roman authority
[27:29] Speaker 1: and tradition. So from the Roman perspective, this could look
[27:34] Speaker 1: like subversion, or at least a source of divine disfavor.
[27:40] Speaker 1: A Christian writer, Tertullian, summed up the Roman attitude with
[27:45] Speaker 1: a bit of acerbic wit. if the tiber rises as
[27:49] Speaker 1: high as the city walls, if the Nile does not
[27:52] Speaker 1: send its waters up over the fields, if the famine
[27:56] Speaker 1: or pestilence, straight away, the cry is, away with the
[28:01] Speaker 1: Christians to the lion. In other words, Christians were a
[28:06] Speaker 1: convenient scapegoat for pretty much any calamity the Romans could find.
[28:10] Speaker 1: Blamed as culprits because of their impiety was thought to
[28:14] Speaker 1: anger the gods. Tertullian's remark from around AD 197 shows
[28:21] Speaker 1: how deeply the idea had taken root that Christians, by
[28:25] Speaker 1: refusing to honour the old gods, imperiled the welfare of
[28:29] Speaker 1: the entire society. And that had to be punished. Roman
[28:38] Speaker 1: policy in the second century, following Trajan's line, generally continued
[28:43] Speaker 1: in this vein. There was no new law openly declaring
[28:46] Speaker 1: Christianity illegal, yet the principle was clear. Adherence to it
[28:52] Speaker 1: was punishable by death, unless one recanted. Successive emperors mostly
[28:58] Speaker 1: upheld Trajan's approach. Under Hadrian, who reigned 117-138, the trend
[29:05] Speaker 1: was towards restraining undue zeal. We have a letter from
[29:09] Speaker 1: Hadrian to the proconsul of Asia, Minucius Fundanus, around 125,
[29:15] Speaker 1: responding to complaints of mob violence against Christians. Hadrian instructs
[29:20] Speaker 1: that officials should not punish Christians without proper trial or evidence, quote,
[29:26] Speaker 1: if anyone therefore accuses them and shows them that they
[29:29] Speaker 1: are doing anything contrary to the laws, do not pass
[29:32] Speaker 1: judgment according to the heinousness of the crime, but by Hercules,
[29:38] Speaker 1: if anyone bearing an accusation through mere calumny punish him.
[29:45] Speaker 1: False accusers were to be penalized, and mere cries from
[29:48] Speaker 1: the crowd were not enough, a measure to ensure some
[29:51] Speaker 1: legal integrity. This rescript, preserved by the historian Eusebius, reveals
[29:58] Speaker 1: a Roman desire to control excesses. Now, don't get confused.
[30:03] Speaker 1: Hadrian was not endorsing Christianity. He was just curbing chaotic
[30:08] Speaker 1: persecutions driven by hysteria rather than law. Despite relatively moderate
[30:18] Speaker 1: stances by emperors like Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, persecution still
[30:23] Speaker 1: erupted in the second century. most of the time stirred
[30:27] Speaker 1: up by local hostility. For example, in Smyrna, around A.D. 155,
[30:34] Speaker 1: the bishop Podocarp was martyred. A frenzied crowd shouted for
[30:38] Speaker 1: his death, calling Christians atheists, those deniers of the gods.
[30:45] Speaker 1: The Roman proconsul offered to spare Podocarp if he were
[30:47] Speaker 1: to swear by the genius of Caesar and curse Christ,
[30:53] Speaker 1: essentially proving his loyalty to Rome. Well, guess what? Policarp
[30:58] Speaker 1: did not do this. And his refusal led to his
[31:03] Speaker 1: execution burning. Pretty typical of how these situations played out. Similarly,
[31:10] Speaker 1: in Lyon, which used to be called Lugdenum in Gaul
[31:14] Speaker 1: in 177, an outbreak of mob violence led to dozens
[31:18] Speaker 1: of Christians being imprisoned and then brutally executed. Such incidents
[31:23] Speaker 1: usually originated from public anger or scapegoating in times of misfortune,
[31:29] Speaker 1: which then pressured officials to act. Governors would then apply
[31:33] Speaker 1: the standard policy, give the accused Christians a chance to
[31:37] Speaker 1: recount and sacrifice, and those who didn't, you know, execute them.
[31:46] Speaker 1: Even the philosophically minded like Marcus Aurelius, reigning 161 to 180,
[31:52] Speaker 1: did not halt the persecutions. His reign saw some notable martyrdoms, actually,
[31:59] Speaker 1: but it's not that Aurelius personally set out to exterminate Christians,
[32:04] Speaker 1: but neither did he really sympathise with them. His own
[32:07] Speaker 1: writings show a dismissive view of the faith. In Meditations,
[32:12] Speaker 1: Marcus praises the soul that is ready to depart life, quote,
[32:16] Speaker 1: of its own judgment, not from mere obstinacy with the Christians,
[32:20] Speaker 1: but considerately and with dignity. This brief remark shows a
[32:27] Speaker 1: little bit of the Emperor's mindset. He regarded the Christians'
[32:31] Speaker 1: eagerness for martyrdom as stubborn and somewhat misguided, lacking the
[32:36] Speaker 1: rational serenity that his Stoic philosophy valued so much. To Aurelius,
[32:42] Speaker 1: the Christians were exactly that, just misguided enthusiasts. Sincere, sure,
[32:48] Speaker 1: but irrational. In practice, he allowed governors to continue enforcing
[32:53] Speaker 1: the laws against them, which is why during his first reign,
[32:57] Speaker 1: his reign rather, figures like Justin Martyr were executed in Rome,
[33:03] Speaker 1: and the Massacre at Lyon occurred in the provinces. From
[33:08] Speaker 1: the Roman point of view in the second century, Christians
[33:11] Speaker 1: were just problematic, primarily because they just refused to conform.
[33:16] Speaker 1: It posed a challenge to religious unity, and by extension,
[33:21] Speaker 1: the Empire's relationship with the Gauls. They also formed a
[33:25] Speaker 1: distinct social group that met privately and pledged allegiance to
[33:28] Speaker 1: a leader other than the emperor. Behaviors that made officials uneasy,
[33:35] Speaker 1: especially in times of war or plague when unity was
[33:39] Speaker 1: at a premium. Yet it's important to note that persecutions
[33:43] Speaker 1: in this era were intermittent and localized still. Still, we're
[33:48] Speaker 1: waiting for that concrete empire-wide effort to eliminate Christianity. The
[33:55] Speaker 1: pattern was reactive and governed by the prevailing policy of
[33:59] Speaker 1: offering the loyal sacrifice test. But the nature of Roman
[34:07] Speaker 1: persecution changed in the 3rd century, as the empire itself
[34:12] Speaker 1: was plunged into crisis. Between AD 235 and 284, Rome
[34:18] Speaker 1: endured political chaos, dozens of usurpers, and short-lived emperors, economic breakdown, pestilence,
[34:28] Speaker 1: and external invasions. Not a good time to be a Roman.
[34:33] Speaker 1: And in such an environment, emperors became more concerned than
[34:37] Speaker 1: ever with restoring the traditional stability, and that included the
[34:42] Speaker 1: favor of the old gods. The Christian refusal to sacrifice
[34:46] Speaker 1: to them or the divine emperor, once an occasional annoyance,
[34:51] Speaker 1: now looked like an all-out threat to imperial survival. The
[34:56] Speaker 1: result was the first truly empire-wide persecutions initiated by imperial edict.
[35:05] Speaker 1: The first came under Emperor Decius in AD 249-51. Decius,
[35:11] Speaker 1: confronting a disintegrating empire, initiated a dramatic policy. He ordered
[35:17] Speaker 1: all subjects of the empire to perform a sacrifice to
[35:21] Speaker 1: the Roman gods and the genius of the emperor. and
[35:24] Speaker 1: to obtain a certificate proving that they had done so. Uh-oh,
[35:31] Speaker 1: the Christians are not going to do that. This was
[35:35] Speaker 1: kind of like a universal test of loyalty, aimed at
[35:38] Speaker 1: reviewing people's devotion throughout Roman society. It wasn't explicitly targeted
[35:44] Speaker 1: at Christians, by the way, but in practice it of
[35:47] Speaker 1: course placed them into a terrible dilemma. Devout Christians could
[35:51] Speaker 1: not offer a pagan sacrifice, without betraying their faith. Decius'
[35:58] Speaker 1: edict thus triggered a crisis of conscience across Christian communities.
[36:03] Speaker 1: Many Christians complied or found ways to evade the requirement.
[36:08] Speaker 1: Some had obtained fake certificates, but many refused and were punished. Bishops,
[36:16] Speaker 1: seen as community leaders, were especially targeted. Fabian, the Bishop
[36:20] Speaker 1: of Rome, was executed in 250. and others were locked up.
[36:26] Speaker 1: Although we lack the text of Decius' edict, later Christian
[36:30] Speaker 1: writers portray it as an attempt to exterminate the church.
[36:35] Speaker 1: Whether Decius actually intended that, or simply wanted religious unity,
[36:42] Speaker 1: the effect was a wave of persecution across the empire.
[36:46] Speaker 1: It was the first time being Christian was tantamount to
[36:48] Speaker 1: a capital crime everywhere, by imperial command. The persecution was severe,
[36:55] Speaker 1: but relatively brief. It abated after Decius died in battle mid-251,
[37:00] Speaker 1: but still it set a precedent for empire-wide action. After
[37:07] Speaker 1: some respite, persecution flared again under Emperor Valerian, 253-260. Valerian
[37:14] Speaker 1: renewed the persecutions in 257, first banning Christian assemblies and
[37:20] Speaker 1: exiling non-compliant clergy. then escalating to an order in 258
[37:26] Speaker 1: to execute Christian leaders and confiscate property of high-ranking Christian laity.
[37:32] Speaker 1: This edict claimed the lives of prominent figures such as
[37:34] Speaker 1: Pope Sixtus II and Cyprian of Carthage. Valerian's aim seemed
[37:41] Speaker 1: to be to decapitate the Church and cow its members,
[37:46] Speaker 1: especially the elite, into conformity. In contrast to Decius's broad approach,
[37:52] Speaker 1: Valyrian was a lot more targeted. He focused on bishops, priests,
[37:58] Speaker 1: and any influential Christians who refused to toe the line.
[38:04] Speaker 1: And thus Valyrian's persecution ended abruptly when he was captured
[38:09] Speaker 1: in war by the Persian king in 260. Pretty humiliating fate.
[38:15] Speaker 1: His son and his successor Gallienus immediately changed course. Gallienus, surprise, surprise,
[38:24] Speaker 1: issued an Edict of Toleration, the first ever for Christians.
[38:30] Speaker 1: And that halted persecution, and even allowed confiscated church property
[38:34] Speaker 1: to be restored. From AD 260 to 303, the church
[38:40] Speaker 1: enjoyed relative peace empire-wide. This period, sometimes called the Little
[38:46] Speaker 1: Peace of the Church, saw Christianity grow in numbers and organisation.
[38:51] Speaker 1: By the end of the third century, Christians were found
[38:55] Speaker 1: in all social strata and regions, even in the imperial
[38:59] Speaker 1: household and the army. The church's resilience and expansion during
[39:05] Speaker 1: this time meant that any future persecution would face a
[39:09] Speaker 1: much larger and more entrenched Christian population. Yet, the fundamental
[39:16] Speaker 1: clash between the Christian exclusivity and the Roman state religion
[39:21] Speaker 1: was far from resolved. It was merely in abeyance. The final,
[39:28] Speaker 1: and most extreme, persecution was just around the corner, triggered
[39:34] Speaker 1: by a combination of renewed imperial absolutism and conservative backlash.
[39:42] Speaker 1: When Diocletian became emperor in 284, he reorganized the emperor
[39:47] Speaker 1: into a tetrarchy, that is the rule of four, with
[39:52] Speaker 1: two senior Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, and two junior Caesars,
[39:57] Speaker 1: Galerius and Constantius. For most of his reign, Diocletian coexisted
[40:02] Speaker 1: with the growing Christian minority without really any incident. Christians
[40:07] Speaker 1: even served in the army at his own court. However,
[40:12] Speaker 1: his Caesar Galerius was a zealot adherent of the old religion.
[40:17] Speaker 1: and harboured deep hostility towards the new Christians. According to Lactantius,
[40:24] Speaker 1: a later Christian chronicler, as the turn of the new
[40:27] Speaker 1: century approached, Galerius pressed the ageing Diocletian to act decisively
[40:33] Speaker 1: against the Christians, casting them as a kind of threat
[40:37] Speaker 1: to unity and Pax Deorum of the Empire. A dramatic
[40:44] Speaker 1: incident at the Imperial Palace in Nicomedia An oracle, allegedly
[40:48] Speaker 1: failing to give a prophecy due to the presence of
[40:51] Speaker 1: an impure Christian individual, finally convinced Diocletian to act. And so,
[41:00] Speaker 1: in February of 303, Diocletian would initiate what would become
[41:05] Speaker 1: the Great Persecution with a series of sweeping edicts. He
[41:11] Speaker 1: first ordered Christian scriptures be burned, churches demolished, and civil
[41:16] Speaker 1: rights withdrawn. Next, all Christian clergy were arrested and compelled
[41:23] Speaker 1: to sacrifice to the gods on pain of torture. Finally,
[41:27] Speaker 1: by 304, every subject was required to perform sacrifice to
[41:31] Speaker 1: the pagan gods, with execution as the penalty for refusing.
[41:38] Speaker 1: All these edicts taken together aimed at nothing less than
[41:42] Speaker 1: the desired eradication of Christian worship. and the forcible return
[41:46] Speaker 1: of the population to the old ways. The enforcement was
[41:51] Speaker 1: of course brutal, especially in the eastern provinces where Diocletian
[41:55] Speaker 1: and Galerius held sway. Many Christians defied the edicts and
[41:59] Speaker 1: were imprisoned, tortured or executed for refusing to sacrifice. Some
[42:07] Speaker 1: were burned alive, others thrown to wild beasts or beheaded.
[42:12] Speaker 1: The traditional fates of martyrs However, in the western provinces
[42:17] Speaker 1: the persecution was much less thorough. Constantius, the Caesar ruling
[42:23] Speaker 1: Gaul and Britain, largely ignored the more bloodthirsty commands, contenting
[42:29] Speaker 1: himself with destroying a few churches. Thus the intensity of
[42:33] Speaker 1: the great persecution varied across the empire. But what motivated
[42:39] Speaker 1: this ferocious campaign? the official rationale can be cleaned from
[42:44] Speaker 1: an extraordinary document issued at its end, the Edict of
[42:47] Speaker 1: Toleration by Galerius in A.D. 311. By 311, Diocletian had retired,
[42:55] Speaker 1: and Galerius himself, now Augustus, had lay fatally ill. In
[43:02] Speaker 1: this edict, Galerius proclaimed an end to the persecution, and
[43:07] Speaker 1: in doing so, spelled out why it was undertaken. He
[43:12] Speaker 1: explains that the emperors had desired to bring all things
[43:16] Speaker 1: into harmony with the ancient laws and public order of
[43:20] Speaker 1: the Romans, and to provide that even the Christians who
[43:24] Speaker 1: had left their religion of their fathers should come back
[43:26] Speaker 1: to reason. Basically, the aim was to restore the ancient
[43:32] Speaker 1: laws and the old social cohesion back to the glory
[43:37] Speaker 1: days by correcting what they saw as Christian obstinacy, against
[43:43] Speaker 1: the ancestral path. Christians, Galerius said, had fallen into such
[43:49] Speaker 1: a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity,
[43:53] Speaker 1: instead holding their own assemblies. The language portrays Christianity as
[43:58] Speaker 1: a reckless deviation from custom. The emperor saw it as
[44:02] Speaker 1: their duty to recall these errant subjects to the fold
[44:07] Speaker 1: of Roman tradition. Galerius then candidly admits that coercion had
[44:13] Speaker 1: only partial success. Quote, When our law was promulgated, many
[44:19] Speaker 1: were subdued by the fear of danger, many even suffered death.
[44:25] Speaker 1: And yet, since most of them persevered in their determination,
[44:29] Speaker 1: and we saw that they neither paid the reverence and
[44:32] Speaker 1: awe due to the gods nor worshipped the God of
[44:34] Speaker 1: the Christians, we have resolved to grant indulgence. This is
[44:39] Speaker 1: a remarkable concession, isn't it? Despite killing many Christians, the
[44:45] Speaker 1: Empress found that Christian movement as a whole was preserved.
[44:49] Speaker 1: Some former Christians, having apostatized unto due rest, turned out
[44:53] Speaker 1: not to worship the Roman gods so sincerely. Thus, the
[44:58] Speaker 1: persecution failed to achieve its goal of unity. It even
[45:02] Speaker 1: created a populace of disaffected people, who revered neither the
[45:07] Speaker 1: old gods nor the Christian god. In light of this,
[45:12] Speaker 1: Galerius declares an end to the persecution, and allows Christians
[45:17] Speaker 1: to exist once more, holding their assemblies, as long as
[45:23] Speaker 1: they do nothing contrary to public order. Tellingly, he asks
[45:27] Speaker 1: Christians to pray for the welfare of the emperors and
[45:30] Speaker 1: state in return, effectively acknowledging Christianity as a reality in
[45:35] Speaker 1: the empire, and soliciting its divine aid. Galerius' Edict issued
[45:42] Speaker 1: in Nicomedia, April 30th, 311, thus terminated the great persecution
[45:48] Speaker 1: in the East. In the West, persecution had largely ceased earlier,
[45:53] Speaker 1: especially after Constantius' son Constantine came to power in 306
[45:57] Speaker 1: and showed favour to the Christians. Two years later, in 313,
[46:03] Speaker 1: Empress Constantine and Licinius met in Milan and agreed on
[46:08] Speaker 1: a further-reaching edict. the Edict of Milan. That granted full
[46:15] Speaker 1: freedom of religion to Christians, and restitution of church property
[46:19] Speaker 1: across the empire. And the long era of persecution was
[46:25] Speaker 1: finally over. So really, the Roman persecution of early Christians
[46:34] Speaker 1: was kind of a complex mix of social, religious, and
[46:39] Speaker 1: political factors. There was no one thing. Now, religiously, the
[46:45] Speaker 1: exclusivist monotheism of Christianity somewhat clashed with the more inclusive
[46:50] Speaker 1: polytheism of Rome. The Christians refused all to worship the
[46:54] Speaker 1: emperor and partake in sacrifices. It was a slap in
[46:58] Speaker 1: the face to the Roman notions of piety and loyalty.
[47:04] Speaker 1: To Romans, this impiety and even treason potentially inviting the
[47:09] Speaker 1: wrath of the gods upon the community, was just not
[47:13] Speaker 1: something they could tolerate. The Christians in Roman eyes were
[47:17] Speaker 1: atheists for denying the traditional gods, and adherents of a
[47:21] Speaker 1: mischievous superstition rather than a real and respectable faith. And socially,
[47:28] Speaker 1: Christians were seen as separatists, strange loners. They often kept
[47:33] Speaker 1: to themselves meeting in private, and abstained from many normal
[47:36] Speaker 1: civic activities, public games, festivals and sacrifices. And that bred
[47:43] Speaker 1: distrust and rumours. And it was these wild rumours that
[47:48] Speaker 1: painted them as immoral conspirators. That charge of hatred of
[47:54] Speaker 1: mankind that Tacitus mentions encapsulates how Christians were perceived as
[47:58] Speaker 1: outsiders who repudiated the common values of Roman society. For
[48:06] Speaker 1: a Roman emperor or governor, The notion that a sect
[48:10] Speaker 1: refused to perform the simple act of emperor worshipping or sacrifice,
[48:17] Speaker 1: where there were acts that bound the empire together, was
[48:20] Speaker 1: deeply troubling. The Roman state was always concerned with order
[48:25] Speaker 1: and unity as the most important thing. So what began
[48:28] Speaker 1: as local sporadic actions, that is, Nero's scapegoating to placate
[48:32] Speaker 1: the angry citizens, evolved into principled policy decisions. when emperors
[48:38] Speaker 1: like Decius sought to revive traditional religion as a means
[48:41] Speaker 1: to save a crumbling empire. The persecutions often intensified during
[48:47] Speaker 1: times of crisis. Marcus Aurelius' reign saw war and plague.
[48:52] Speaker 1: The mid-third century was chaos. Diocletian's time saw a major
[48:57] Speaker 1: effort to reinforce imperial ideology, precisely when unity was most needed.
[49:04] Speaker 1: Emperors did not persecute Christianity out of sheer cruelty or madness. Well,
[49:10] Speaker 1: maybe Nero did a little bit. But they did so
[49:13] Speaker 1: to believe, because they sincerely believed that Christians' refusal to
[49:17] Speaker 1: honour Rome's gods undermined the emperor's security and divine protection.
[49:22] Speaker 1: In their view, a refusal to sacrifice was tantamount to
[49:27] Speaker 1: an attempt to weaken the empire. But from the Christian viewpoint,
[49:33] Speaker 1: these persecutions fulfilled the expectations that disciples would suffer as
[49:37] Speaker 1: martyrs to their faith. exactly as their lord had told them.
[49:43] Speaker 1: Martyrs like Polycarp, Cyprian, and others went to their death
[49:46] Speaker 1: holding that obedience to God came before obedience to any
[49:50] Speaker 1: earthly authority. They interpreted Roman actions as a diabolical assault
[49:55] Speaker 1: on the one true religion, and at the same time
[49:58] Speaker 1: they tried to defend themselves in the court of public opinion.
[50:02] Speaker 1: Writers such as Tertullian and other apologists addressed the Roman
[50:06] Speaker 1: authority's arguing that Christians were loyal subjects who in fact
[50:12] Speaker 1: prayed for the emperor, that they committed no crimes, and
[50:17] Speaker 1: they were being persecuted solely for their name. Roman readers
[50:23] Speaker 1: rarely heeded these pleas, of course, but they stand out
[50:27] Speaker 1: as evidence that Christians sought understanding and coexistence, even as
[50:31] Speaker 1: they braced for their own martyrdom. And so the Roman persecutions,
[50:37] Speaker 1: brutal as they were, ultimately failed to destroy Christianity. In fact,
[50:43] Speaker 1: they often had the opposite effect, strengthening the resolve of
[50:47] Speaker 1: Christians and inspiring admiration from some pagans too. Within a
[50:53] Speaker 1: few years of the final persecution, Emperor Constantine's conversion would
[50:57] Speaker 1: initiate a new era. The once persecuted faith would become
[51:02] Speaker 1: the favoured religion of the empire. The long ordeal between
[51:07] Speaker 1: Rome and Christianity demonstrates how profoundly the new faith tested
[51:12] Speaker 1: the old order, and how, in trying to stamp it out,
[51:16] Speaker 1: the Roman authorities inadvertently highlighted the very virtues of conviction
[51:20] Speaker 1: and community that helped Christianity endure and flourish. And on
[51:28] Speaker 1: that note, our time together today ends. Unless you want
[51:34] Speaker 1: to watch another video, in which case, yes, you should
[51:37] Speaker 1: do that. But I'm going to thank the top tier
[51:40] Speaker 1: patrons and subscribers, both on YouTube and Patreon. Madeline, Melissa, OrthodoxReviewer,
[52:03] Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this one, Orthodox Review. Scott, Stark Factory, Shell, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin,
[52:13] Speaker 1: the HMSHH, Crystal and Dalvary. Thank you all so much.
[52:20] Speaker 1: And I will see you whenever you feel the need
[52:22] Speaker 1: to return to this channel. As for me, I've had
[52:27] Speaker 1: enough for today. Good night, everyone. And as always, lots
[52:31] Speaker 1: of love to you all. I wish you all the best.
[52:34] Speaker 1: Good night.

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