Search results
Over two decades since two Roman historians and a Revelation scholar have pronounced a Domitianic persecution moribund, such claims continue to circulate in articles, books and sermons. This shows how long it takes to repudiate “alternative facts” that have circulated for over 1,500 years in Christendom.
The emperor Domitian, who was naturally inclined to cruelty, first slew his brother, and then raised the second persecution against the Christians. In his rage he put to death some of the Roman senators, some through malice; and others to confiscate their estates.
There was no general persecution, which took in all parts of the empire, until the reign of Decius (249-251), but Domitian's cruelty and ferocity were extreme, and many persons of the highest rank fell under his condemnation and suffered banishment and even death, not especially on account of Christianity, though there were Christians among ...
The Edict of Serdica, issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ended the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. With the publication in AD 313 of the Edict of Milan, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased. The total number of Christians who lost their lives because of these persecutions is unknown.
The occasion of Domitian's persecution of the Christians has been much discussed. Several causes for his attack upon the church have been assigned: the unsocial habits of the Christians; the prevalent charges against them that they were atheists, child- murderers, and addicted to malevolent magic; Domitian's zeal for
As a consequence, the anti-Domitianic tradition was already well established by the end of the 2nd century, and by the 3rd century, even expanded upon by early Church historians, who identified Domitian as an early persecutor of Christians, such as in the Acts of John.
Domitian’s persecution comes across in many Christian sources as a nebulous and half-hearted follow-up to the Neronian, but this paper argues for a more precise understanding of accounts of Domitian’s persecution, an understanding which gains cohesion from the idea of strangers in the Roman world.
