The Myth of Martyrs Fed to Lions
The image of Christian martyrs being fed to lions in Rome’s Colosseum has long been an artistic and cultural trope. However, there is no historical evidence that Christians were ever fed to the lions in Rome’s deadly arena. To be sure, Roman authorities sometimes visited horrific punishments upon some Christians. Moreover, there actually were waves of official persecution against Christians. However, there are no contemporary accounts of Christians being fed to the lions. Such tales were popularized by what came to be known as the Acts of the Martyrs, accounts of the sufferings of early Christians, compiled after Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official faith.
While such accounts are historically dubious, history nonetheless owes them many thanks: they saved the Colosseum. In the centuries after the Western Roman Empire fell, Rome went into a steep decline. The Colosseum was among many buildings pilfered of marble and stone to reuse in local construction, until it became the shell we know today. Starting in the eighteenth century, however, various popes cited the supposed martyrdoms in the Colosseum to declare it a site sanctified by blood, in order to preserve what was left of it.
