The causes and effects of persecution

Overview

Position of Judaism, charge of Thyestean banquets and charge of Oedipodean unions.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why did the refusal to take part in the imperial cult make Christians suspect?

   Model answer

   Sacrifice to the emperor's genius and to the gods of Rome was a civic act of loyalty rather than a private devotion. Christians who refused were therefore not simply holding an unusual belief but were seen as withholding allegiance from the state.

2. 2

   Why were Christians accused of atheism?

   Model answer

   Christians denied the existence of the gods, had no temples, no images and no sacrifices, so by ancient standards they appeared to have no religion at all. Since the safety of the empire was thought to depend on the goodwill of the gods, atheism of this kind looked like a public danger.

3. 3

   What was the position of Judaism, and why did the separation of Christianity from it matter?

   Model answer

   Judaism was tolerated as an ancient ancestral religion, and Jews were excused from sacrificing to the gods on payment of a tax. Once Christians were recognised as distinct from Jews they had no such standing, since their religion was new and could not claim the respect owed to antiquity.

4. 4

   How do modern historians qualify the idea that Christianity was a religio illicita?

   Model answer

   The phrase comes from Tertullian rather than from Roman law, and historians such as G.E.M. de Ste. Croix have argued that Rome had no formal register of permitted religions. Christians were prosecuted under the general power of governors to keep order and, as Pliny's letter shows, for the name itself rather than under a specific statute.

5. 5

   What was the charge of Thyestean banquets, and where did it come from?

   Model answer

   Opponents accused Christians of eating human flesh at their meetings, a charge named after the myth of Thyestes. The rumour almost certainly grew out of misheard eucharistic language about eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, in a rite from which outsiders were excluded.

6. 6

   What was the charge of Oedipodean unions?

   Model answer

   Christians were accused of incest at their gatherings, a charge named after the myth of Oedipus. The slander appears to have arisen from their calling each other brother and sister, from meeting at night and from the kiss of peace and the shared love feast.

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