Were Christians ACTUALLY Persecuted In Ancient Rome? The FACTS скачать в хорошем качестве

Were Christians ACTUALLY Persecuted In Ancient Rome? The FACTS

Link to my video on the historicity of Jesus for reference    • Is Jesus Historical? DEFINITIVE Evidence A...   All the good links: Come watch me live stream on Twitch! Almost every night 9pm CST   / metatrongemini   Join this channel to get access to more old school Metatron videos the algorithm wouldn't prioritize!    / @metatronyt   I have a Patreon page with extra content!   / themetatron   My second channel about languages    / @metatronacademy   My third channel about gaming    / @theprotectorate-yq7vi   My Twitter/X https://x.com/pureMetatron The epistolary exchange between Pliny the Younger and Emperor Trajan offers precious data regarding the perception and management of Christianity by the Roman state in the first centuries of the empire: if on one hand the beliefs of Christians are branded as "excessive and depraved superstitions," their interrogation through torture is reported and their refusal to honor the emperor's genius was punishable by death, at the same time it is evident that there were no specific laws promulgated against them, and the policy expressed by Trajan indicates that they were not actively persecuted. On the contrary, the emperor explicitly declares that they should not be actively sought out, "conquirendi non sunt," but that one should proceed against them only if they are denounced, but not if this happens anonymously. The impression that emerges is that if expressly confronted with practices deemed illicit, such as the refusal to sacrifice to the emperor's genius, the imperial authorities acted so as not to appear weak and not to create a precedent, but that Christians were not considered particularly harmful or dangerous. What emerges from Trajan's response is the desire to preserve order and public peace, and the awareness that actual persecutions, searching out and flushing out Christians, would have been more conducive to disturbances than leaving them relatively in peace, going after them only when expressly denounced by someone who would, however, have had to expose themselves personally. This text continues the historical discussion about early Christian persecutions in the Roman Empire. I'll translate it: The policy expressed by Trajan is one of the elements that casts doubt on dating the martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch to his reign. Ignatius, who was brought to Rome in chains and condemned ad bestias (to the beasts), had become, after Peter and Evodius, the main reference point of the Christian ecumene. The corpus of Ignatius' letters, written in captivity during his journey from Antioch to Rome, are generally considered authentic, and the entire story of the saint would be confirmed by Eusebius of Caesarea, but their dating is far from being confirmed and could be subsequent to Trajan's reign. The outbreak of actual anti-Christian persecutions is associated with the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in response to the difficulties that began to rage over the empire, from the economic crisis to famines and barbarian invasions (specifically that of the Marcomanni): all elements that led to a state of generalized tension, ideal for the search for a scapegoat. Exactly like the Jews in the Middle Ages, Christians became the target of the most horrible rumors, which presented the Eucharistic rite as a sort of demonic sabbath, a licentious orgy in which a newborn was killed and cannibalized, following a misunderstanding, probably intentional and conscious on the part of some, of the Eucharistic rite. Emblematic is the oration of Marcus Cornelius Fronto, of which Minucius Felix reported some passages: "They, gathering from the most ignoble dregs the most ignorant and womenfolk, easy to fall for due to the weakness of their sex, form a band of impious conspiracy, which meets in nocturnal congregations to celebrate sacred vigils or inhuman banquets, not for the purpose of performing a rite, but for wickedness; a race of people who love to hide and flee from light, are silent in public and talkative in secret. They equally despise altars and tombs, mock the gods, scorn sacred rites; miserable, they pity the priests (if it is permissible to say so), despise dignities and the purple robes, they who are almost naked! [...] Unbridled licentiousness reigns among them, almost like a cult, and they call themselves indiscriminately brothers and sisters, so that, under the cloak of a sacred name, even the usual immodesty becomes incest. [...] I have heard that they venerate, after having consecrated it, the head of a donkey, I don't know for what futile belief [...] #historyofchristianity #ancientrome #christianpersecution