Persecution in Lyon
The persecution in Lyon in AD 177 was an outbreak of persecution of Christians in Lugdunum, Roman Gaul (present-day Lyon, France), during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), recorded in a contemporary letter preserved in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 1, which was written 150 years later in Palestine. Gregory of Tours also describes the persecution in the 6th century in De Gloria martyrum.
Background[edit]
Lugdunum was an important Roman city in Gaul. Founded on the Rhone river in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, it served as the capital of the Roman province Gallia Lugdunensis. The emperor Claudius was born in Lugdunum. The first known Christian community established in Lugdunum some time in the 2nd century was led by a bishop named Pothinus from Asia Minor.
In the first two centuries of the Christian era, it was local Roman officials who were largely responsible for persecutions. In the second century, the Caesars were largely content to treat Christianity as a local problem, and leave it to their subordinates to deal with. Until the reign of emperor Decius (249-251) persecution was local and sporadic. For Roman governors being a Christian was in itself a subversive act, because it entailed a refusal to sacrifice to the gods of Rome, including the deified emperor.[1]
Deaths[edit]
There were 48 victims at Lugdunum, half of them were of Greek origin, half Gallo-Roman.[6] The elderly Bishop Pothinus, first Bishop of Lugdunum, was beaten and scourged, and died shortly after in prison.
A slave, Blandina was subjected to extreme torture. She was initially exposed, hung on a stake, to be the food of the beasts let loose upon her. As none of the beasts at that time touched her; she was brought back again to the prison, before being cast in a net and thrown before a bull.[7]
Also martyred at this time were Attalus, Epipodius and Alexander, Maturus, Saint Ponticus, a fifteen-year-old boy, and
Sanctus, a deacon from Vienne.[3]