So, Maybe Persecution Was Only Haphazard

Intriguing article that may explain something that never made much sense about the Romans. After all, the Romans were remarkably tolerant of all faiths, including some very eccentric ones:

Moss, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, challenges some of the most hallowed legends of the religion when she questions what she calls “the Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest and mercilessly thrown to lions merely for their religious beliefs.” None of that, she maintains, is true.