overall depravity (2.25.1–2), while the account of Domitian’s
anti-Christian measures was preceded by a description of his
capricious cruelty (3.17). When Eusebius came to the purges of
his own day, he stressed the immorality of persecutors such as
Maxentius and Maximinus Daia (8.14) – a view echoed in the
writings of Lactantius. Eusebius similarly associated persecution
with emperors who came to the throne through bloodshed, over-
throwing rulers who had been favourably disposed to Christians,
for example when Maximinus Thrax replaced Alexander Severus
(6.28), and when Decius seized the throne from Philip the
Arab (6.34). In addition, Eusebius could attribute persecution also
to the shortcomings of Christians themselves. The outbreak of
Diocletian’s persecution, for example, had been preceded by
decades of peace for the Christians, during which, Eusebius
maintained, they had grown proud, lazy, and neglectful of their
duties towards God. The resumption of hostilities was explained
by Eusebius as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy that God would
wreak vengeance on his people for their crimes against him
(8.1.7–9). Eusebius’ account of the persecutions was shaped,
therefore, by his apologetical agenda. Moreover, it is littered
with inconsistencies, errors, and omissions that make much of it
doubtful history (Barnes 1971: 155–6).
A further difficulty with the traditional account (whether it
is found in ancient sources or regurgitated in sentimentally pious
modern works) is that it tends to treat the experience of Christians
in something like isolation from the broader context of Roman
law and administration within which the persecutions were
enacted. For example, by laying emphasis on the horrors experi-
enced by the Christians, it ignores the fact that brutal punishments
were a common enough reality in the Roman empire. Moreover,
killing people (criminals in the main) in gruesomely inventive
ways in venues for public entertainment, such as the amphithe-
atre or circus, was a widespread phenomenon (Coleman 1990),
not just a special form of sadism reserved for Christians. Thus
the experiences of the early Christians at times of persecution
were hardly unique.EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE
190