It’s not coincidental that today’s optional memorial follows the Solemnity of Peter and Paul. Sts. Peter and Paul stand at the head of the first Christian martyrs: the Pope crucified upside down on Vatican Hill, the preacher to the nations beheaded in Rome.

As we saw from Paul’s journeys, Christianity spread quickly in the Roman Empire, especially in the cities, so there was no way it would not reach the most important city of all: Rome.

For Romans, Christians and Jews were at first indistinguishable, united more by their monotheistic (one god) faith that put them at odds with almost every other people. We should remember that the ancients believed that the gods so controlled events (and, therefore, the fate of men and nations) that being conquered by another meant their gods were stronger and could now, as a sign of their power, demand worship. If one is already worshipping multiple gods, adding a few more poses no problems. It did for Christians and Jews.

Because most Christians were not of prominent classes and their religious rites were clandestine, all sorts of other rumors could be spread to their disfavor, e.g., that they were cannibals who ate “the Body of Christ.” This added to their being “on the peripheries.”

Nero became emperor in 54 and reigned until 68. Regardless of some historians' attempts to whitewash him, the tradition of history generally identifies him as the first major imperial persecutor of Christians. It is these martyrs that today’s memorial commemorates. He is also generally considered as sadistically cruel and debauched.

A major fire broke out in Rome in the second half of July 64, speculation being that it may have been an accident, though some contemporary sources pinned the blame on Nero for trying to raze the city for some of his own grandiose projects. It’s said Nero pinned the blame on Christians, using them as scapegoats to deflect attacks and criticisms of him, providing the Romans with “bread and circuses” to keep civil order. Christians were therefore rounded up and killed in various ways, e.g., by being killed by wild beasts, being crucified, or — in a parody of the fire — being tarred and then set on fire for use as human torches.

Successions of emperors in those times were chaotic, often what we might call putsches, and by the end of his reign, similar conspiracies surrounded Nero. Eventually, they drove Nero to suicide. He died, aged 30.

The late 19th century showed a great interest in ancient times, especially the Neronian period. American Lew Wallace’s novel Ben-Hur quickly became a classic in the United States after it appeared in 1880. Pole Henryk Sienkiewicz published Quo Vadis? (subtitled “A Story from the Time of Nero”) appeared serially in 1895-96 and contributed to his 1905 Nobel Prize in literature. Both novels have been made into epic films.

The late 19th century was also a period of epic historical painting in Poland: grand and huge paintings of great moments in national and world history were committed to canvas. Henry Siemieradzki (1843-1902) was among those painters; his “Nero’s Torches” depicts setting persecuted Christians on fire to use as street illumination. The huge oil painting (10 feet by 23 feet without the frame) sumptuously displays their murder.

Two camps face each other: on the left, the numerically enormous Roman establishment in all its finery, Nero reclining on a couch as they all watch nine Christians being set on fire. The Christians have been bound to stakes decorated with flowers, almost like Maypoles. They have been bound with flammable materials and probably, as tradition has it, tarred. The execution is just beginning: only a few of its victims have already started burning.

As we move forward on the right, we see at least two executioners on their ladders affixing the titulus (the inscription with the charges and sometimes the names of the executed, just as on Jesus’s Cross). The message of the titulus is “A Christian Arsonist of the City.” One executioner is ready to set his victim ablaze; the other is reaching down for a torch. The sky suggests dusk. The spectators’ stares indicate they are not there for the illumination but the sadistic entertainment.

Siemieradzki’s painting is in the National Gallery in Kraków, Poland.

There would be many other persecutions of Christians in the three centuries-plus of the pagan Roman Empire. Many were localized, a few more broadly spread across the Empire. Of the latter, several Roman emperors’ names stand out: Nero, Decius, Domitian and Diocletian. Constantine would bring it to an end with his Edict of Milan in 313, which made Christianity legal; later, in 380, Theodosius would be regarded as making it the imperial religion (though some scholars deny this).

[For more reading, see here and here.]