The Traditional Accounts of Christians Being Fed to Lions at the Colosseum
For centuries, it was widely believed that early Christians had been slaughtered in droves in Rome’s Colosseum. The imagery of Christian martyrs being fed to lions became – and remains – an art and cultural trope. Indeed, so widely accepted was it, that it almost seems as if early Christians were the main fare of the Colosseum’s big cats. However, there is no historical evidence that Christians were ever fed to the lions in Rome’s deadly arena. To be sure, as seen above, Roman authorities were not squeamish about visiting horrific punishments upon some Christians. There also were waves of official persecution of Christians. However, there are no contemporary accounts that Christians were fed to the lions.
We have the Acts of the Martyrs to thank for the spread of such tales. They were accounts of the sufferings of early Christians, compiled after Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official religion. Such accounts are historically dubious, but they had a silver lining for which history owes them many thanks: they saved the Colosseum. After the Western Roman Empire fell, the city of Rome went into a steep decline. The Colosseum was one of the many ancient Roman monumental buildings pilfered of marble and stone to reuse in local construction, until it became the shell seen today. 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.
