that government ran smoothly (Veyne 1990). Such elites were
based mainly in urban centres: for this reason the cities of the
empire have been characterized as ‘the secret of government
without bureaucracy’ (Garnsey and Saller 1987: 26).
If we view Roman government in this way, then the per-
secutions of the Christians begin to take on a very different
complexion. Far from representing some kind of total war against
the Christians by the Roman authorities, most persecutions
were emphatically local events. Thus, while Eusebius might
describe Nero as beginning ‘to take up arms against the worship
of the God of the universe’ (Ecclesiastical History2.25.1), this
emperor’s persecution was limited to the city of Rome. Eusebius
also contended that Nero’s campaign was renewed by Domitian
(3.17), but again the evidence suggests a more limited impact.
Some executions took place at Rome. There are signs in the New
Testament First Epistle of PeterandRevelationthat Christians
in Asia Minor were being repressed also at this time (see p. 202),
but this purge is more likely to have been provoked by a local
famine than by any imperial directive (Frend 1965: 211–17). It
looks likely that ‘the tradition of Domitian the persecutor has
been vastly exaggerated’ (Jones 1992: 119).
Even when persecution was more widespread, its effect
seems to have been sporadic. The reign of Marcus Aurelius
(161–80) saw a number of purges, but they seem to have occurred
mainly in the years 164–8 and 176–8 and to have been concen-
trated in Asia Minor, with an additional outburst also at Lyons in
Gaul in 177. At no point are we told explicitly why these perse-
cutions occurred, but it seems that local factors were the most
obvious cause (Frend 1965: 5, 268–94). None of this is to say
that the Roman imperial authorities were innocent of complicity
in the persecutions. Martyrs were executed for their steadfast
faith, but executions could only be ordered by imperial officers
(governors in the provinces; prefects in Italy). That is why,
until the end of the third century, persecution and martyrdom
were exclusively urban phenomena: provincials may well have
harboured anti-Christian feelings, but they needed the presenceEARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE
192