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ϭϯϵ   Chapter Twelve Martyrdom of Perpetua: Public Spaces and the Early Christian Martyrs Introduction In the early church martyrdom served a number of functions. Martyrdom was viewed as an embodiment of Christian witness both to Christians themselves and to non-Christians. It also served as a process of self-definition for the church as it struggled with its own theological self-understanding. The texts do generally portray reflection or development of important Christian teachings. Martyrdom also served as a moral and social challenge to Greco-Roman culture and its excesses. This chapter is an attempt to examine the role of public spaces, especially the arena, in martyrdom, and how these public spectacles were viewed by Christians, the Roman administration and society in general. Background to Christian Martyrdom Several factors, cultural, social, religious and political seem to have combined to create an environment that would not only allow but also promote martyrdom for centuries in the Roman Empire. First of these is the development of the emperor cult. The Roman emperors began to claim divine powers patterned on the eastern monarchs and the pharaohs of Egypt. The plurality of religions itself did not present any political problem. The local people were simply asked to acknowledge the gods of Rome and to sacrifice to the emperor as a means of confirming loyalty to the state and promoting unity among the people. Once this was done, people were free to worship their own gods.1 Jews were exempted from observing this imperial requirement because their strict monotheistic stance on religion was acknowledge by the state.2 Secondly, the Romans, like the Greeks before them, had special love for games, sports and drama. These were traditionally violent3 and had religious connotations. Thirdly, as Christians became more and more distinct and separate from the Israelite religion, their religious practices became more and more suspect.4 In the  1 Denis C. Duling, The New Testament, History, Literature and Social Context, 4th ed., Belmont CA,: Wordsworth/Thomson, 2003, p. 448. 2 Ibid. 3 Robin D. Young, In Procession before the World, Martyrdom as Public Liturgy in Early Christianity, Milwaukee, WI: Marquettte University Press, 2001, p. 12. ϭϰϬ   view of the non-Christian public mystery surrounded Christian meetings, prompting charges against what they perceived as immoral Christian behaviour. The Agape and the Eucharist, for example, were perceived as particularly scandalous. This earned them scorn, dislike and outright hatred from society, while the political administration viewed them as politically dangerous fanatics. The refusal of Gentile Christians to participate in emperor worship seemed to confirm these fears, and thus exposed Christians everywhere to the possibility of persecution.5 Fourthly, the nature of the Roman judicial system was such that it allowed Roman officials to demand that Christians acknowledge Roman gods. The law gave these officials power to determine punishment which could lead to banishment, imprisonment, torture or even execution.6 Various officials in different provinces used this power to summon Christians to recant or refuse. This seems to account, partly, for the sporadic incidents of Christian martyrdom in the empire before it reached climactic proportions in the reigns of Decius and Diocletian who systematically carried out widespread state-sponsored persecutions of Christians. The final factor we can mention here is that Christians, on their part, seemed to contribute to the widespread character of martyrdom by sometimes availing themselves for martyrdom in large numbers on grounds that even the state could not understand. We shall be coming to these issues repeatedly in our discussion. Fundamental questions still remain. Why should the Roman emperors demand or at least tolerate deification either of themselves or of past emperors? Why should so many Christians, for so long, voluntarily avail themselves for martyrdom? Why should the public find pleasure in watching fellow human beings humiliated, tortured and executed? What kind of people attended these functions and what interest did they represent? How did these public spectacles in the end affect the church, Roman administration and society in general? Viewing the Public Arena In seeking to probe into the complexities that shaped the culture of martyrdom, we will focus on the arena which emerges to be the focal point for the Roman administration, the Roman society and the Christians. The symbolism they drew  4 F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds), 2nd ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 1065. 5 Ibid. Cf. Elizabeth Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory, Early Christian Culture Making, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, pp. 6...

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