The Christians and the Roman Empire

This text re-evaluates the evidence to explore the place of early Christians in the Roman Empire. The book rejects the myth of an unrelenting persecution of the Christian "outlaw" and also the more modern trend towards minimizing the suffering of Christians. It suggests that both extremes falsify the way in which we view the relationship between the early church and political authority and offers a new definition to correct this. The work should appeal to classicists and to anyone with an interest in the history of Christianity.