From dmeadows@idirect.com Sun Jul  8 14:18:58 2001
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Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 17:23:40 -0400
To: classics@u.washington.edu
From: David Meadows <dmeadows@idirect.com>
Subject: Re: Christians Eaten by Lions
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At 02:42 PM 08/07/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>A little help please. Last night at a dinner party I bobbled the "Christians
>eaten by lions in the Colosseum" discussion. Truth? Fact? Timing? Setting?
>Can someone please provide me with a canned answer to this and then Al can
>put it in his Big Book. I am sure I will have more requests like this in the
>near future.


FWIW, I've been trying to figure this one out myself; there are quite a few 
sites on the web, e.g., which claim the popular belief has no historical 
evidence to back it up (or rather, they were done in at the Circus 
Maximus), e.g.:

http://www.kent.wednet.edu/curriculum/soc_studies/rome/Colosseum.html
http://www.garethpatterson.com/Colosseum/colosseum.htm
http://www.epinions.com/content_20970376836
http://www.baptiststandard.com/2000/5_29/pages/cyber.html
http://dest.travelocity.com/DestGuides/0,1840,TRAVELOCITY%7C2161%7C3%7C1%7C229336%7Cattraction_id%7C26895,00.html
http://www.williston.k12.nd.us/larsen/Unit7%20Religion/Rel43.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/9923/italy.htm

So perhaps a rewriting of Dr. J's question might be "When did the popular 
belief about Christians and lions and the Colosseum start?"

dm

.