In the early days of Christianity, did the Romans actually have public events where they threw Christians to the lions?
Cecil on the subject:
So probably, but no confirmation?
I would say very likely, but that a specific contemporary statement is lacking. We know that 1) Christians were executed by being thrown to animals, and 2) lions were one of the animals used in executions. As Cecil says, if Christians were not thrown to lions it must have been an oversight.
Even if it never really happened it makes a good story and demonstrates martyrdom for Christians. So for PR reasons the story lives on whether it really happened or not.
Its undeniable that Christians were persecuted during the Roman empire. Does it really matter how they were killed?
since I asked a specific question then, yes, an accurate answer probably matters.
Since there are no photos or video; and since recorded incidents will always be challenged; how can we possibly know? It will always be IMHO.
You just said that it was undeniable that Christians were persecuted during the Roman empire, but by your own standards that can only be your own opinion, correct?
I’m just asking if there are any reliable historical records that show that Romans threw Christians to the lions in a public arena.
Moderating
If you don’t have any actual information on the subject, there really isn’t any reason for you to be posting in this thread. As has been pointed out, you could say this about any historical topic.
Colibri
General Questions Moderating
Since this is a forum that requires factual answers, can we not say that there isnt a factual answer because there is no direct evidence?
Dispositive evidence need not be “direct.”
Examples are too numerous to discuss in this thread.
I think the Mythbusters would classify this one as an extremely strong “plausible”.
But would you really want them to test out the theory? They do tend to go a bit overboard.
Do you plan to post that in every thread about historical events?
The answer to that would be a statistical yes on something close to 100%. It didn’t take much to find yourself in court and anything less than blind loyalty to the Emperor is a ticket to the wrong side of the Colosseum. It’s virtually certain that some Christians refused to acknowledge the Emperor as divine or participate in any official state religion.
Here is a cite regarding the Diocletianic Persecution.
The only reference to Christians being thrown to lions that we definitely have comes from the Christian theologian Tertullian, who wrote several defenses of Christianity. In his Apology (written as a defense of Christianity to a hypothetical Roman official), he says at one point, talking about how Christians are scapegoated for everything that goes wrong in the Empire (As Cecil mentions in his column):
And then later, there’s this, which in the translation I found says,
but really he’s making a pun in Latin, and the translator is trying to preserve the pun rather than the straight translation, because what what the bolded part actually is in the text is:
“ad lenonem potius quam ad leonem”
which translates to “to a pimp, rather than a lion”.
At other points, he talks about condemning prisoners to beasts generally, as for instance:
I think Tertullian was the only writer to mention lions specifically, but there are a bunch of other sources that talk about Christians suffering execution by wild beasts.
I don’t think they were actually “thrown” to lions, they were forced into the arena and lions released.
I think that he/she plans to post it in every thread.
I have always wondered about the “lions”. Unlike Tigers or some Bears, Lions have lived humans for hundreds of thousands of years and while they will attack humans, they are generally wary of them. Especially ones in captivity.
Seems to me to be a poor method of execution.