melvourne bragg is produced by simon tillotson, i thought it 's going to be like, we have such a great friendship that we can talk about things i can't talk about with any one else. That's how things fell apart with john ronson and louis thoreu on radio four. And you might also like this conversation where i ask him all about how he made it funny. So your conflict ofers, im conflict of es. Yet we spend our lives putting ourselves in conflict heavy situations. I thoughtyougoin to say like astronauts with ones who've been to the moon, and no one else has seen what we've seen.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the accounts by Eusebius of Caesarea (c260-339 AD) and others of the killings of Christians in the first three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus. Eusebius was writing in a time of peace, after The Great Persecution that had started with Emperor Diocletian in 303 AD and lasted around eight years. Many died under Diocletian, and their names are not preserved, but those whose deaths are told by Eusebius became especially celebrated and their stories became influential. Through his writings, Eusebius shaped perceptions of what it meant to be a martyr in those years, and what it meant to be a Christian.
The image above is of The Martyrdom of Saint Blandina (1886) at the Church of Saint-Blandine de Lyon, France
With:
Candida Moss
Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham
Kate Cooper
Professor of History at Royal Holloway, University of London
And
James Corke-Webster
Senior Lecturer in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King’s College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson