Being Roman in the Sasanian Empire: Revisiting the Great Persecution of Christians under Shapur II (original) (raw)
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Persecution and apostasy 297 of religious oppression in the seventh century requires special consideration. For this reason, we employ sociologist Margaret Somers's theories of narrativity and emplotment to a selection of representative seventh-century documents. 3 This chapter concludes that persecution inflicted by Persians, Muslims, and Romans can only be understood in the context of war and as a means to prevent and punish challenges, both real and imaginary, to a so-called persecutor's hegemony. All three polities considered here were concerned with the smooth administration of communities under their control, not with the destruction of opposing religious groups. Methodology Themes This chapter is divided into three major themes based on forces in the Eastern Mediterranean that have traditionally been considered persecutors. We begin with the Sassanid Persians, who conquered significant portions of Roman territory, including Jerusalem and the True Cross, in 614. 4 The Persian invasions lasted from 602 until 628 when the emperor Heraclius secured victory and recovered Roman territory, along with the restoration of the True Cross. 5 Second, we consider the persecution of religious minorities in the earliest decades of the Muslim invasions. Here we consider the incursions of Islamic forces through to the establishment of Arab hegemony over former Roman territories. The time covered during this period spans from the 640s until the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the 690s. We will conclude by considering the persecution of religious minorities by the Heraclian dynasty itself. Here, we will focus primarily on the persecution of the Jews, initiated by the emperor Heraclius, and the treatment of Christian dissidents by the emperor Constans II, particularly Pope Martin II and Maximus the Confessor. This theme serves to demonstrate that Christians were not only persecuted but also served as persecutors, particularly at the imperial level. Sources This chapter examines sources spanning the chronological range of the seventh century. Witnesses to the Persian invasions include the Life of Anastasius the Persian, the History of the Armenians by pseudo-Sebeos, and the Life of George of Choziba. 6 For the Arab invasions, we consider the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, the Dialogue Between the Jews Papiscus and Philo with a Monk, and the Apocalypse of pseudo-Methodius, composed at the end of the seventh century. 7 Finally, our primary evidence for imperial persecution comes from a unique adversus Judaeos dialogue, the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, an account of the arrest and trial of Pope Martin I, and the record of Maximus the Confessor's first trial in Constantinople. 8 Considering the polemical nature of our sources, some caveats are necessary. Each of the sources examined here are hostile toward the so-called persecutors
Minority Religions in the Sasanian Empire: Suppression, Integration, and Relations with Rome
Gauging the importance of religion to the exercise of political will in the Sasanian world requires enormous care. It is all too easy to take the Great Kings at their word as they championed the doctrines of Zoroastrianism in their political pronouncements, especially as some of them also persecuted Christianity. Whether or not such sentiments were genuine, a closer analysis of the evidence suggests a more pragmatic royal use of religion. The political realities on the ground were more often the deciding factor in how the kings related to the religious sectors of Sasanian society. This state of affairs sometimes set the kings against the Zoroastrian clerics, whose agendas were not always in alignment, and it explains why Christian persecutions were usually motivated more by politics than doctrine. Moreover, this dynamic also explains the prominence of the Christian church in the later Sasanian period as kings employed it as a base of support, much as they had the Zoroastrian hierarchy.
Religion, Conflict and Continuity in the Early Sasanian Period
HISTORIA I ŚWIAT, 2021
This article investigates the relationship between historical/religious memory and the perception of power in the early Sasanian period, and analyses how dynastic reflexes are formulated by religion/tradition in the new system within the context of Ardashir, Kerdir and Mani. It asserts that we can discover the relationship between the Sasanian elites and religion if we understand the factors that mobilised and remodelled their historical memories. Based on these factors, it proposes that the natural relationship established by the Sasanian dynasty during the state-building phase was fuelled by historical/traditional factors rather than by conscious political factors. Thus, the inherent links between the representatives of power and the religious tradition in the reign of Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian state, have been consciously politicised since the reign of Shapur I.
Heirs of Roman Persecution. Studies of a Christian and para-Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity, 2019
The subject of this book is the discourse of persecution used by Christians in Late Antiquity (c. 300-700 CE). Through a series of detailed case studies covering the full chronological and geographical span of the period, this book investigates how the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity changed the way that Christians and para-Christians perceived the hostile treatments they received, either by fellow Christians or by people of other religions. A closely related second goal of this volume is to encourage scholars to think more precisely about the terminological difficulties related to the study of persecution. Indeed, despite sustained interest in the subject, few scholars have sought to distinguish between such closely related concepts as punishment, coercion, physical violence, and persecution. Often, these terms are used interchangeably. Although there are no easy answers, an emphatic conclusion of the studies assembled in this volume is that "persecution" was a malleable rhetorical label in late antique discourse, whose meaning shifted depending on the viewpoint of the authors who used it. This leads to our third objective: to analyze the role and function played by rhetoric and polemic in late antique claims to be persecuted. Late antique Christian writers who cast their present as a repetition of past persecutions often aimed to attack the legitimacy of the dominant Christian faction through a process of othering. This discourse also expressed a polarizing worldview in order to strengthen the group identity of the writers' community in the midst of ideological conflicts and to encourage steadfastness against the temptation to collaborate with the other side.
Roman Anti-Christian Persecutions: Reframing the Paradigm
THE ELDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER: Festschrift for Israel Yuval, 2022
In his landmark essay "Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted?" the renowned British historian G.E.M. de Ste. Croix famously advanced a chronological framework for analyzing Roman anti-Christian coercion which, he claimed, ended with Constantine. This essay challenges that paradigm, and argues that the widest and most sustained Roman anti-Christian persecutions came AFTER the accession of Constantine.
European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2012
Persecution and martyrdom among adherents of various religions of the world have been a critical issue. In some religions it is honored and given a prominent place and the martyrs seen as having gone to paradise. In others they go as far as killing themselves in their bid to be seen as martyrs and inherit a place of prominent in the world to come. This study examined persecutions and martyrdom among Christians in the Roman Empire between AD 54 and AD100. It traces the history of persecution of Christians from the time of Emperor Nero to Domitian. The paper also traces brief biography of some emperors and their achievements within the period. The paper concludes with a lesson for the 21 st century church. It recommends among others that Christians today should return to the kind of dogged faith that characterized the early Christians that made them grow in number and in strength. They should not resort to retaliation as has been the case in many instances but to turn vengeance to God if they are to be seen and known as Christians indeed.
The subject of this book is the discourse of persecution used by Christians in Late Antiquity (c. 300-700 CE). Through a series of detailed case studies covering the full chronological and geographical span of the period, this book investigates how the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity changed the way that Christians and para-Christians perceived the hostile treatments they received, either by fellow Christians or by people of other religions. A closely related second goal of this volume is to encourage scholars to think more precisely about the terminological difficulties related to the study of persecution. Indeed, despite sustained interest in the subject, few scholars have sought to distinguish between such closely related concepts as punishment, coercion, physical violence, and persecution. Often, these terms are used interchangeably. Although there are no easy answers, an emphatic conclusion of the studies assembled in this volume is that "persecution" was a malleable rhetorical label in late antique discourse, whose meaning shifted depending on the viewpoint of the authors who used it. This leads to our third objective: to analyze the role and function played by rhetoric and polemic in late antique claims to be persecuted. Late antique Christian writers who cast their present as a repetition of past persecutions often aimed to attack the legitimacy of the dominant Christian faction through a process of othering. This discourse also expressed a polarizing worldview in order to strengthen the group identity of the writers' community in the midst of ideological conflicts and to encourage steadfastness against the temptation to collaborate with the other side.