The Romans are infamous for their tactics of executions. According to Lynch, in the first and second centuries, Roman authorities encouraged worship of the emperor (80). The emperor was seen as a god in the Roman population. If Christianity was emerging and growing quickly, the worshiping would shift from the emperor to the one true God. Lynch describes two phases of persecutions the Romans went through in the history of their persecution practices.
The first phase, Christians were still associated with Jews so Romans protected them in a way because Judaism was considered an “ancient national religion”. Once Christians started increasing in number and gentiles started to convert, Christians became a target and was no longer protected by the stamp of “ancient national religion”. Persecution was in the form of letters and developed in some martyrs. It was very systematic. The second phase, Romans were not systematic in the attempt to stop Christianity. Christians were claimed to be “endangering the already fragile welfare of the empire by angering the gods” (Lynch, 88). The Romans were trying to protect their empire and were willing to do anything to do so.
The writers of martyrdom stories didn’t have the same view as Roman’s did. They believed their deaths were noble and please to their one God. Writers of the martyrdom stories portrayed the hero and the opponents very differently. In the Martyrdom of Polycarp, Polycarp is portrayed as a model and should be imitated. Some words that were used to describe him were blessed, noble and marvelous. The Romans were portrayed as unjust rulers. The imagery used by the authors was creative in the sense they parallel many aspects of the martyrdom of Christ. For example, Polycarp was betrayed by a member of his household, named Herod. Right before Polycarp’s death he also said a prayer that surrendered himself to God’s will, which is what Christ did right before his death as well. The martyrdom stories served as a tool of encouragement and “one way ticket to Heaven”. The martyrdom literature became more and more appealing as time went on. The goal of this literature was to encourage more people to die for their faith than to submit to believes that went against their own, and the goal was met.