ABSTRACT
The persecution of the Christians in the Roman empire has attracted the attention of scholars of many different kinds. The enormous volume of literature on the subject is partly due to the fact that it can be approached from many different directions: it offers a challenge to historians of the Roman empire (especially of its public administration), to Roman lawyers, to ecclesiastical historians, to Christian theologians, and to students of Roman religion and Greek religion. In fact all these approaches are relevant, and they must all be used together.
