How Christianity Divided the Roman Empire | Colosseum

[suspenseful music] [horn music, crowd cheering] NARRATOR: In 107 AD, Emperor Trajan celebrates an extended series of games. [screams] [cheering] SIMON MONTEFIORE: When Trajan succeeds the Roman Empire, Rome is at its greatest. It's vast.

It's successful. It's rich. And Trajan really personifies that, the energy, the success, and the sophistication of this extraordinary institution.

Under his leadership, the Roman Empire reaches its greatest territorial extent-- 2 million square miles. NARRATOR: Stretching from Britannia in the west to Syria in the east, the 50 million subjects of Rome believe in a wide array of different religions and gods. But one underground spiritual movement in particular is gaining momentum.

NICOLA DENZEY LEWIS: The number of Christians is growing. And what started as a very small movement based around Jerusalem has now spread across the empire. Dear Lord, protect our brother, Ignatius, from those who will do evil to him.

Amen. Christians, when they see a few of their high priests eaten by lions, they'll turn to our gods. The Romans see Christianity as a threat because of its promise to undermine Roman conceptions of how power and authority were supposed to work.

NARRATOR: A prominent Christian leader is brought to Rome to be killed, most likely in the city's amphitheater. TOM MUELLER: Ignatius of Antioch, he is clearly the target of Trajan's anger because he is arrested and brought to Rome to be executed by being fed to lions, probably in the Colosseum. SIMON MONTEFIORE: If these people show disrespect to the emperor and the Roman state, that's sedition.

And for that, they should be killed. [cheering] ALISON FUTRELL: Public executions were supposed to teach a lesson to those who witnessed them. The fate of Christians who persisted in their belief was a capital offense.

It was a death penalty offense. [lion roars] NARRATOR: But this will be no ordinary execution. ROBERT CARGILL: Ignatius is convinced that he's going to die violently.

And this is OK with him because Ignatius wants to follow the model of Christ. Ignatius is willing to do this, to die just like Jesus, to be martyred. While Ignatius is on his way to Rome, he's able to write seven letters.

And it's because of these letters that we know who he is. These are first-person accounts of what happened to him, how he feels about it, why he thinks it matters or might make a difference. [suspenseful music] [cheering] SIMON MONTEFIORE: The cheers of the crowd above, darkness and heat below-- one couldn't think of a worse place to be.

ROBERT CARGILL: There would have been hundreds if not a thousand people, along with all of these animals, cramped together in the hypogeum. [snarling] You can imagine what this would have been like for Ignatius. Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil.

ROBERT CARGILL: He's got to ask himself, is he going to die with grace? Or is he going to end up some grisly carcass on the Colosseum floor? [cheering] Citizens of Rome!

Marvel at the worst criminals as they experience the true power of the empire. NICOLA LEWIS: The Roman judicial system was class-driven. If you were very, very high status, you would be allowed to do it in some way that was quick and easy and relatively painless.

If, however, you were of a lower class or you were a slave, then you were going to be killed fairly brutally. [snarling] So we have the expression in English, "being thrown to the lions. " We use it sort of metaphorically, right?

But it was very literal in the Roman Empire. People actually were thrown to the lions. Christians.

When they see a few of their high priests eaten by lions, they'll turn to our gods. NICOLA LEWIS: So we have Ignatius's own words because of his letters. And they can really help us to get into his mind.

Bring on the fires, the cross, the hordes of wild beasts. NICOLA LEWIS: The whole phenomenon of Christian martyrdom is absolutely massive enigma in the Roman mind. Cannot understand it, just as they cannot understand the sort of joy that they see in the faces of the martyrs in the amphitheaters.

The hideous tortures of the devil-- NICOLA LEWIS: He's saying things like, he wants to be torn apart by the wild beasts. He wants to be ground like bread between the teeth of the lion. The language in it is extraordinarily strong and severe.

Real sense of wanting to die, wanting to suffer. The wrenching of my bones, the dicing of my limbs. He knows that dying as a martyr is actually going to do far more in spreading the gospel than just standing there and preaching.

And so when they see this martyr just stand there and die gracefully, willingly, they're going to ask, what does he believe? And when they find out, oh, man, Christianity is going to begin to spread. Now!

[lion growling] The Romans plan to make an example of Ignatius. This was about to completely backfire. [lion snarls, crowd cheers] [angelic music] He's not touching him.

There are great stories of Christians being thrown before the beast, before the lions. And instead of the lions devouring them, the lions lie down at their feet. Our Lord is protecting him.

Who doesn't like that idea, of a lion who's supposed to tear you apart, instead rolling over to get a belly rub instead of eating you? [daunting music] [snarling] SHELLEY P. HALEY: He held to his beliefs and died for it.

Why? For something he believed in. And that must have been astounding to the Romans.