PART ONE. The evil Rome as the real and the real false prophet revealed to me by our Lord Jesus Christ

Despite this, medieval Christian theologians considered Trajan to be a virtuous pagan.[5]

Hadrian

The emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138) also responding to a request for advice from a provincial governor about how to deal with Christians, granted Christians more leniency. Hadrian stated that merely being a Christian was not enough for action against them to be taken, they must also have committed some illegal act. In addition, “slanderous attacks” against Christians were not to be tolerated, meaning that anyone who brought an action against Christians but failed would face punishment themselves.

Marcus Aurelius to Maximinus the Thracian[edit]

Amphithéâtre des Trois-Gaules, in Lyon. The pole in the arena is a memorial to the people killed during this persecution.

Sporadic bouts of anti-Christian activity occurred during the period from the reign of Marcus Aurelius to that of Maximinus. Governors continued to play a more important role than emperors in persecutions during this period.^[28]:35

In the first half of the third century, the relation of Imperial policy and ground-level actions against Christians remained much the same:

It was pressure from below, rather than imperial initiative, that gave rise to troubles, breaching the generally prevailing but nevertheless fragile, limits of Roman tolerance: the official attitude was passive until activated to confront particular cases and this activation normally was confined to the local and provincial level.^[51]:616

Apostasy in the form of symbolic sacrifice continued to be enough to set a Christian free.^[28]:35 It was standard practice to imprison a Christian after an initial trial, with pressure and an opportunity to recant.^[51]:617

The number and severity of persecutions in various locations of the empire seemingly increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius,161-180. The extent to which Marcus Aurelius himself directed, encouraged, or was aware of these persecutions is unclear and much debated by historians.^[52] One of the most notable instances of persecution during the reign of Aurelius occurred in 177 at Lugdunum (present-day Lyons, France), where the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls had been established by Augustus in the late 1st century BC. The sole account is preserved by Eusebius. The persecution in Lyons started as an unofficial movement to ostracize Christians from public spaces such as the market and the baths, but eventually resulted in official action. Christians were arrested, tried in the forum, and subsequently imprisoned.^[53] They were condemned to various punishments: being fed to the beasts, torture, and the poor living conditions of imprisonment. Slaves belonging to Christians testified that their masters participated in incest and cannibalism. Barnes cites this persecution as “one example of suspected Christians being punished even after apostasy.”^[28]:154 Eusebius, however, wrote his Ecclesiastical History in roughly 300 AD or 120 years after the events that he referenced and it is unclear if this event ever occurred. Moreover, the church father Irenaeus, the Christian Bishop of Lyon, where this incident allegedly took place, wrote his five-volume Adversus Haereses in 180, just three years after the alleged persecution but makes no mention whatsoever of any persecution which happened in his city. Instead, Irenaus writes: “The Romans have given the world peace, and we [Christians] travel without fear along the roads and across the sea wherever we will.” (Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 30, Sentence 3). Martyrdom of Saint Blandina, one of the martyrs of Lyons, stained glass window by Alexandre Mauvernay