A Moral Panic Over Christianity
Ancient Romans had basic assumptions about life – and right and wrong – that were sometimes extremely different from what we take for granted. That explains how otherwise normal people spent entire days in places like Rome’s Colosseum to watch other humans get killed in various gruesome ways, and deemed it great entertainment. Before it ceased operations as a gladiatorial arena and public execution site, up to a million people died in the Colosseum, aside from the millions of animals slaughtered for the crowd’s pleasure. Ancient Romans thought massive scale snuff was awesome. Their sense of humor was also on the cruel end of things.
When Rome burned in Nero’s reign, many Christians celebrated – they thought it was a sign of the anticipated end of days. Understandably, other Romans were appalled. They suspected that the Christians had started the fire or at least spread it, and demanded that they be punished. So Nero rounded up Christians, had some of them covered in pitch, and set on fire so they became human torches. Roman spectators thought that was an apt and funny punishment, especially fit for arsonists who had torched Rome, and now became torches themselves.
