Domitian, the fathers and the persecution of the church

Abstract

The portrayal of the Emperor Domitian in early Christian sources relates to mental journey which the Church undertook in formulating its relations with Roman civil authorities. Historians have seen Domitian as an example of a ‘bad’ emperor which indicated the obedience Christians would offer to emperors who did not persecute. But Patristic sources not only distinguished between good and bad emperors, but made good emperors out of bad, insisting on conversions and patronage as emanating from the imperial court. Using distinctive features of the Patristic records of the Domitianic persecution, including records of his victims, this paper reconstructs how Patristic writers undertook a mental journey to integrate Church and State, locating Christians at the very centre of imperial power.