Early Christianity

conversion, could protest their loyalty to the Roman empire and

even seek its protection. The reasons for this diversity of experi-

ence are to be sought in the precise contexts within which

persecution (and toleration) occurred. To that end, the case study

that concludes this chapter will examine one very early instance

of confrontation between Christianity and the empire.

An age of persecutions?

The history of early Christianity before Constantine’s conversion

can sometimes seem to be dominated by conflict with the Roman

empire and outbreaks of persecution, when Christians were

tortured and killed for their beliefs. We have already seen that

tales of persecution and martyrdom fascinated later generations

of Christians from Eusebius in late antiquity, through the middle

ages and beyond (chapter 2). Indeed, vivid images of persecu-

tion and martyrdom often dominate the modern perception

of early Christianity, as if they were broadly representative of the

early Christian experience. Among the more influential, perhaps,

is the painting The Last Prayer by J.-L. Gérôme (1824–1904),

which shows a scene from the circus in Rome: in the background,

some Christians have been fixed to burning crosses, while others

kneel in prayer as they await their fate; in the foreground, two

lions and a tiger emerge from a tunnel. This image has been repro-

duced on the covers of books dealing with the early Christians.^1

Its iconography has been echoed also in more popular media, for

example in the depiction of the fate of Christians under the

emperor Nero (played by a splendidly demented Peter Ustinov)

in the 1951 film Quo Vadis.

Some of the verdicts pronounced on Christianity by pagan

Romans suggest implacable hostility (see p. 198). Yet the main

source for our grim picture of an age of persecutions and martyrs

before Constantine is to be found in the writings of Christians

themselves. In the early fourth century, Eusebius of Caesarea

not only made persecution and martyrdom one of the central

themes of his Ecclesiastical History, but also dealt with the

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