Dying for God The Roman historian Tacitus mentions Christians in his Annals: They got their name from Christ, who was executed by sentence of the procurator, Pontius Pilate, in the Reign of Tiberius. That checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but it broke out afresh - -not only in Judea, where the plague first arose, but in Rome itself, where all the horrible and shameful things in the world collect and find a home. (Ann )

Dying for God The Roman historian Suetonius on the Christians: “ a body of people addicted to a novel and mischievous superstition. ”

Dying for God The Christian apologist Tertullian on Christian scapegoatism: “… if the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise to water the fields, if there is no rain, or if there is earthquake or famine, if there is plague, the cry at once arises, ‘ The Christians to the lions! ’”

rise of Christian apologists (a model of accommodation?) : –Aristides the Athenian (d. 134 CE) –Quadratus of Athens (ca 124 CE) –Epistle to Diognetus (ca. 180 CE) –Justin Martyr ( CE) First Apology Second Apology Dying for God

No organized persecution of Christians until the second century No imperial policy on the persecution of the Christians before the third century Persecuting emperors: –Nero –Domitian –Trajan –Hadrian –Antoninus Pius –Marcus Aurelius –Decius –Valerian –Diocletian Dying for God

Nero (54-68 CE)

Domitian ( CE)

Diocletian ( CE)

“Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may be no trouble to any one. Then shall I truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body.”

“Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ.”

“ They broke out all her teeth with blows on her jaws, and piling up a pyre before the city threatened to burn her alive, if she refused to recite along with them their blasphemous sayings. But she asked for a brief space, and, being released, without flinching she leaped into the fire and was consumed. ” Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiae, ) FOUQUET, Jean. The Martyrdom of St Apollonia Musee Condee, Chantilly

GIOTTO di Bondone. The Stefaneschi Triptych: Martyrdom of St Paul. c Pinacoteca, Vatican

St. Agatha and St. Apollonia. Francisco de Zurbaran, Oil on canvas. Musée Fabre, Montpellier and the Louvre, Paris

Francesco del COSSA, St Lucy (Griffoni Polyptych) National Gallery of Art, Washington Domenico BECCAFUMI, St Lucy Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

ASIP, Vicente. Martyrdom of St Agnes. 1540s,Prado, Madrid

MORAZZONE, Martyrdom of Sts Seconda and Rufina Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Paolo Veronese, The Martyrdom of St. Justina Galleria di Uffizi, Florence.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Martyrdom of St. Agatha Staatsmuseum, Berlin

Sebastiano Piombo, The Martyrdom of St. Agatha, 1520.

Saint Cecilia, by Stefano Maderno, Church of St. Cecilia, Rome