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What was it like for the faithful living in the Roman Empire in the beginnings of the Messianic movement?
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00:00Rome. The year is AD 49. The city is a sprawling metropolis of marble and might. It is the heart
00:06of a vast empire, stretching from the misty shores of Britain to the sun-scorched sands
00:11of Egypt. Its streets are a living, breathing tapestry of humanity. Senators in flowing
00:16togas stride toward the Forum. Legionaries with their distinctive helmets and armor patrol
00:21the avenues. Merchants from every known corner of the world hawk their exotic wares in bustling
00:26marketplaces. The air is thick with the smells of spices, baked bread, and the sweat of a million
00:32lives lived in close quarters. This city, this empire, is built on a foundation of tradition,
00:38power, and most importantly, the favor of the gods. The Roman people worshipped a pantheon of gods and
00:43goddesses. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus. These were not just names and stories. They were powerful,
00:50divine beings who governed every aspect of daily life. The Romans believed their empire's success
00:56depended on keeping these gods happy. They did this through a system known as the Pax Deorum,
01:03or the Peace of the Gods. This was a sacred contract. They offered sacrifices, performed
01:09rituals, and honored the emperor as a divine figure. In return, the gods granted Rome peace,
01:15prosperity, and victory in battle. Religion was not a private matter. It was a public duty,
01:20a civic responsibility that bound the empire together. Into this world, a new story began to
01:26unfold. It arrived not with armies or emperors but with humble travelers and whispered conversations.
01:31It was a faith born in the distant province of Judea. Its followers spoke of a single all-powerful
01:36god. They told of a man named Jesus Christ whom they believe was the son of this god. They said,
01:41he had been crucified but had risen from the dead, offering forgiveness and eternal life to all who
01:47believed. This was Christianity. It was a message of hope and love, but it was also radically different
01:53from anything Rome had ever known. It did not fit neatly into the empire's religious landscape.
01:58At first, these Christians were a small, almost invisible group. They met quietly in homes and
02:03hidden courtyards, sharing meals and praying together. To most Romans, they were just another
02:08strange sect from the east, perhaps a splinter group of Judaism. No one could have guessed that this
02:13small, seemingly insignificant movement would soon find itself on a collision course with the most
02:18powerful empire the world had ever seen. The stage was set for a confrontation of beliefs,
02:25a clash of loyalties that would last for centuries. It was a story that would be written in the courage
02:30and suffering of ordinary people. Christians stood out from the Roman world in profound ways. Their most
02:36striking difference was their refusal to worship the Roman gods. For a Roman citizen offering a pinch of
02:41incense to a statue of the emperor or a local deity was a simple act of patriotism. It was like saluting
02:46a flag or singing a national anthem. But for Christians, this was an act of betrayal. They
02:51believed in one God and one Lord, Jesus Christ. To worship another god even as a civic gesture was to
02:57deny their faith. This stubborn refusal was deeply puzzling and offensive to the Romans. It was seen not as
03:03piety, but as atheism and disloyalty. This religious exclusivity led to social separation. Christians often
03:10avoided public festivals and games, which were almost always dedicated to a pagan god. They did not
03:16participate in the ceremonies that honored the emperor's divine spirit. This made them seem
03:20anti-social and secretive. Rumors began to spread among the populace because Christians spoke of eating
03:25the body and drinking the blood of Christ in their private, Eucharistic meals. Whispers of cannibalism
03:31circulated because they called each other brother and sister and greeted each other with a holy kiss.
03:36They were accused of incest and holding wild orgies. These were vile slanders, born of
03:42misunderstanding and fear. The structure of their community was also unusual. In a society rigidly
03:48divided by class, wealth and status, the Christian church was a place of radical equality. Slaves and
03:55masters, rich women and poor laborers, Romans and foreigners, all were welcomed as equals in the eyes
04:01of God. This social mixing was unsettling to the Roman elite, who saw it as a threat to the
04:06established social order. The Christians formed a tight-knit community, a sort of state within a
04:11state. They cared for their own poor, their widows and their orphans. This loyalty to each other
04:16seemed to supersede their loyalty to the empire. Ultimately, the conflict came down to a simple
04:21question of allegiance. Who was the ultimate authority? For Rome, the answer was the emperor and
04:27the state. For Christians, the answer was God. When commanded to choose, Christians consistently chose God.
04:33This was seen by the authorities as contumatia, stubborn defiance against lawful authority.
04:38It was this perceived stubbornness, more than any specific doctrine, that first brought them into
04:43direct and often deadly conflict with Roman power. They were seen as a corrosive element,
04:48a group that stubbornly refused to play by the rules that held the empire together.
04:54The first official notice of Christians in Rome came around the year AD 49 during the reign of the
04:59emperor Claudius. The Roman historian Suetonius tells us that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome
05:05because they were constantly making disturbances at the instigation of Crestus. Most scholars believe
05:10Crestus was a Roman misspelling of Christus, or Christ. It seems the new Christian message was
05:15causing arguments and division within the city's Jewish community. This was not a persecution of
05:20Christians as a distinct group as the Romans did not yet clearly distinguish them from Jews.
05:24It was more of a police action, a move to quell public disorder. Still, it was the first time the
05:30new faith appeared on the imperial radar. The first true horrifying persecution, however,
05:35was unleashed by Emperor Nero in AD 64. That year, a catastrophic fire swept through Rome,
05:41burning for six days, and destroying huge sections of the city. The people were devastated and angry.
05:47Rumors began to fly that Nero himself had started the fire so he could rebuild the city in his own
05:51grand vision. To deflect the blame and find a scapegoat, Nero turned on the Christians. The
05:56historian Tacitus, who was no friend to Christians, described the events with chilling detail. He said
06:01Nero accused a group hated for their abominations called Christians by the populace. Nero's cruelty
06:07was legendary. He did not simply execute the Christians. He made a public spectacle of their
06:13deaths to entertain the Roman masses. Some were covered in the skins of wild animals and torn apart by
06:19dogs. Others were crucified. Nero had Christians coated in pitch and wax tied to posts in his
06:26gardens and set on fire as human torches to illuminate his evening parties. This persecution
06:31was brutal, but it was also localized. It was largely confined to the city of Rome and was driven by
06:37Nero's personal depravity, rather than a formal, empire-wide policy. According to ancient tradition,
06:43it was during this Neronian persecution that two of the most important leaders of the early church
06:47met their end. St. Peter was said to have been crucified upside down. St. Paul was granted the
06:53more merciful death of beheading. Their martyrdom in the heart of the empire turned Rome into a sacred
06:58site for Christians. Nero's attempt to destroy the faith only succeeded in giving it its most famous
07:04martyrs. After the fury of Nero, Christians were left in uneasy, unpredictable suspicion.
07:10Persecution flared up again under Domitian, who reigned from AD 81 to 96. Domitian was an autocrat.
07:17He insisted on being called Dominus et Deus, Lord. God. This demand put him on a collision course with
07:24the Jews and with the Christians. Domitian enforced the collection of a Jewish tax with
07:28particular harshness. He seems to have extended his suspicion to Christians. Many Romans still
07:32viewed Christians as a Jewish sect. Domitian's persecution was not a massive, empire-wide slaughter
07:37like Nero's. It was more targeted, aimed at individuals perceived as threats to his authority.
07:42He executed members of his own family, including his cousin Flavius Clemens. They were charged with
07:48atheism and with Jewish customs. The apostle John, according to tradition, was exiled to the lonely
07:54island of Patmos. In forced isolation, he received visions. He recorded them in the book of Revelation.
08:01Those visions are filled with imagery of persecution and of the ultimate triumph of God. The policy toward
08:07Christians became more clearly defined under Emperor Trajan, who reigned from AD 98 to 117.
08:14We know his position from a famous exchange of letters with Pliny, the younger, the governor of
08:18Bithynia Pontus in what is now modern-day Turkey. Pliny wrote to the emperor asking for guidance.
08:24He had encountered these Christians and was unsure how to handle them. He had been executing those who
08:28refused to renounce their faith. But the number of accused was growing rapidly, involving people of all
08:34ages and from many social classes. Pliny was worried and wanted to know if he was doing the right thing.
08:39Trajan's reply set the official Roman policy for over a century. It was a classic Roman compromise.
08:45First, he stated that the authorities should not actively seek out Christians. There were to be no
08:50witch hunts. Second, he ruled that anonymous accusations should be ignored. Third, if a person
08:56was officially and publicly accused of being a Christian, they must be given a chance to prove their
09:00loyalty. They had to offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods. If they did so, they were to be set free.
09:05But if they stubbornly refused, they were to be executed. This policy made being a Christian a
09:10capital crime, but one that was only prosecuted when someone was brought before a magistrate.
09:15One might expect a period of peace for Christians under the reign of Marcus Aurelius who ruled from
09:19AD 161 to 180. He was called the philosopher king. His meditations are still read today. Yet his reign
09:27saw violent and widespread persecutions. It seems a contradiction but it's understandable from a
09:32Roman view. Marcus Aurelius was a deeply traditional Roman. He presided over an empire beset by plague
09:38famine and wars on its borders. In crisis, Romans sought a cause. They blamed someone for angering the
09:43gods. Christians refused public worship became obvious scapegoats. Their atheism blamed for misfortunes.
09:51Unlike Trajan who discouraged proactive hunts, Marcus allowed anti-Christian sentiment to boil into mob
09:58violence and official prosecutions. Local governors, eager to appease crowds, sometimes encourage
10:05persecution. Policy aimed to placate angry gods and restore the Pax Diorum. A brutal outbreak hit Lyon
10:11and Vienne in Gaul in 177. Survivors' letters recount the events Christians were banned from public spaces.
10:18Mobs attacked, people were stoned and beaten in the streets. Then authorities arrested Christians
10:22and subjected them to tortures. The goal was public humiliation and to break their will,
10:27the governor sought to make an example. Among the martyrs was a young slave girl, Blandina.
10:32Her story shows the courage of early believers she was tortured from morning until night,
10:37tormentors taking turns they were exhausted and amazed she lived.
10:40I'm a Christian and we do nothing wrong.
10:42Taken to the arena scourged placed on a hot iron grill and finally gored to death by a bull,
10:48her endurance inspired Christians across the empire. For the first two centuries, persecution
10:53of Christians was mostly local, sporadic, depended on the whims of a particular governor or the mood
10:58of a local crowd. But all of that changed dramatically in the year 250 under the emperor Decius.
11:06The Roman Empire was in the midst of a deep crisis, military threats from the Goths and Persians,
11:12economic collapse, political instability. Decius believed the only way to restore the empire was
11:17to unite everyone in a single massive act of religious devotion. He wanted to restore the
11:23sacred contract with the gods on a scale never seen before. To make this happen, Decius issued an
11:30edict that was a turning point in the history of persecution. For the first time, every single
11:36inhabitant of the Roman Empire, man, woman, child, was required to perform a public sacrifice to the
11:41Roman gods. This wasn't aimed specifically at Christians, but they became the primary victims.
11:46Everyone had to go before a special commission of magistrates burn incense pour out a libation of
11:50wine taste the sacrificial meat. In return, they'd receive a libellus, a certificate proving compliance.
11:56Anyone who refused to get a certificate was subject to arrest, torture, execution.
12:01This created a crisis of conscience for the entire Christian community.
12:06There was just no place to hide. The choice was stark. Sacrifice and live or refuse and die.
12:13Many Christians stood firm. They confessed their faith and were martyred. One famous example is Pope
12:21Fabian in Rome, who was among the first executed. But many others faltered.
12:25Faced with the terror of torture and the loss of their families and property, a large number of
12:31Christians complied with the edict. Some offered the sacrifice willingly. Others had pagan friends
12:37perform the sacrifice for them, or sometimes bribe officials to get a certificate without performing
12:43the rite. This persecution lasted about a year until Decius was killed in battle, but it left deep
12:50scars on the church. When it was over, the Christian community was divided. What should be done with the
12:55lapsy, the lapsed who had given in and sacrificed? Could they be forgiven and readmitted to the church?
13:01Some, like Novation, argued for permanent exclusion. Others, like Cyprian of Carthage, argued for
13:07repentance and reconciliation. This debate about forgiveness and church discipline would shape
13:12Christian theology for generations, forcing the church to define its identity and authority.
13:18The stories of individual martyrs gave a human face to the suffering, and honestly, became the
13:24bedrock of Christian identity. The apostles Peter and Paul Peter, the fishermen from Galilee Paul,
13:30the educated Pharisee turned missionary were pillars of the early church. Their deaths in Rome under Nero
13:35cemented the city's importance, Peter's crucifixion. Paul's beheading weren't just endings. They were seen as
13:41the ultimate acts of witness, a final imitation of Christ's own sacrifice. Their graves became
13:47pilgrimage sites, and their example inspired countless others to face death with courage,
13:52rather than renounce their faith. A century and a half later in the city of Carthage in North Africa,
13:58another story unfolded that would echo through the ages. It was the story of Vibbia Perpetua,
14:03a young, well-educated noblewoman, her slave, Felicitas. In the year 203, during the reign of Emperor
14:10Septimius Severus, they were arrested along with several other new Christian converts.
14:15Perpetua kept a diary in prison, a rare and remarkable document that gives us a first-hand
14:19account of her thoughts and fears. She writes of the darkness and heat of the crowded prison,
14:23and her anxiety over her infant son, from whom she had been separated. Perpetua's diary reveals her
14:31inner struggle. Her elderly pagan father visited her repeatedly, begging her to renounce her faith for
14:37the sake of her family, and her child. He wept, kissed her hands, and threw himself at her feet.
14:43He called me not his daughter but his lady, she wrote. This was a really profound emotional trial,
14:49yet through it all she remained steadfast. In a series of powerful visions she saw herself
14:54transformed into a male gladiator defeating an Egyptian foe and being welcomed by Christ.
14:59These visions gave her the strength to face her ordeal, convinced that her suffering was a victory,
15:04not a defeat. In the arena, Perpetua and Felicitas faced their deaths with astonishing bravery.
15:10The account, completed by an eyewitness, describes how they were scourged and then attacked by wild
15:15animals. Perpetua even after being tossed by a wild heifer, remained composed, fixing her hair so as
15:22not to appear to be mourning in her moment of glory. Finally, a gladiator was sent to finish them with a
15:27sword. The young gladiator was trembling, and Perpetua had to guide his hand to her own throat.
15:32The punishments inflicted on Christians were designed to be, well, terrifying public spectacles.
15:37The goal wasn't just to eliminate the individual, but to really dissuade others from following their
15:42path. The most infamous method was damnatio ad bestias, or condemnation to the beasts.
15:48Christians were thrown into the arena, unarmed. Lions, bears, leopards, bulls. Another common fate was
15:55crucifixion, a slow and agonizing death reserved for slaves and the lowest class of criminals.
16:01Being a Roman citizen could mean a swifter death by beheading, as with the Apostle Paul.
16:07The authorities used a wide array of tortures to force a recantation, flogging with whips tipped
16:12with bone or metal, stretching on the rack, scorching with hot iron plates, scraping the flesh
16:17with iron hooks. The aim was to break the victim's resolve. The magistrate often did not want a martyr,
16:23he wanted a public renunciation to discredit the movement. A Christian who sacrificed to the gods,
16:29was a victory for Roman authority. A Christian who died for their faith was a victory for the church.
16:36Christians responded in different ways. Many chose martyrdom, the Greek word for witness.
16:42They saw death as an ultimate testimony to faith in Christ's resurrection. They believed sharing
16:47Christ's suffering meant sharing his eternal glory. Their stories of bravery and final prayers were
16:52collected and cherished. These tales were read aloud in community gatherings, inspiring solidarity.
16:57Not everyone had the strength to be a martyr. Many went into hiding to survive. The famous catacombs
17:03of Rome served as a refuge for some. Here they could bury their dead. Here they could hold secret
17:09services away from the authorities. Others, when arrested and tortured, chose to save their lives.
17:14They performed the required sacrifice. They were branded lapsy, the lapsed. This forced the church to
17:21wrestle with human weakness, sin, and the boundless nature of God's forgiveness. The long centuries of
17:27suffering had a profound and lasting impact on the Christian faith. Paradoxically, the persecutions
17:33did not destroy the church. They made it stronger. The second century Christian writer Tertullian
17:38famously wrote, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Every public execution was,
17:45in a way, an advertisement. The courage and calm resolve of the martyrs in the face of horrific death
17:51puzzled many Romans. Why would someone die for this superstition? This question often led to curiosity.
18:01Curiosity sometimes led to conversion. The faith grew not in spite of the persecution,
18:08but because of it. This period of trial forced the church to organize itself more formally. To deal with
18:15heresy and the challenge of the lapsy, a clearer structure of authority was needed. The role of bishops as
18:20leaders of the urban Christian communities became more powerful and defined. They were the ones who
18:26maintained doctrinal purity, managed church property, and decided on questions of discipline,
18:31for example, whether to readmit those who had buckled under persecution. This created a more
18:36resilient and hierarchical institution, one capable of surviving not just persecution, but also the
18:41challenges of success that would come later. The experience of being a persecuted minority shaped
18:47Christian identity for all time. It created a powerful narrative of suffering and redemption,
18:52of loyalty to God above all earthly powers. It fostered a deep sense of community among believers,
18:58who saw themselves as a family bound together by shared faith and shared risk. The stories of the
19:04martyrs became the first Christian saints, heroes of the faith, whose example provided a moral and
19:09spiritual compass for generations to come. The liturgy, theology, and art of the church were all
19:13deeply infused with the memory of this heroic age. Ultimately, the era of persecution came to a
19:19stunning end. In the early 4th century the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.
19:24The very empire that had tried for so long to stamp out the faith now embraced it. The cross,
19:30once a symbol of criminal execution, was now displayed, on the shields of Roman soldiers.
19:35Churches were built where arenas once stood. The steadfastness of Christians over 250 years of trial
19:41had achieved the unimaginable. Their courage had not only ensured the survival of their faith,
19:46but it also set it on the path to becoming the dominant religion of the Western world,
19:51shaping the course of history in ways no one in ancient Rome could have ever predicted.
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