From jod@ccat.sas.upenn.edu Sun Jul  8 14:29:43 2001
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From: jod@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (James J. O'Donnell)
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Subject: Re: Christians Eaten by Lions
To: classics@u.washington.edu
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 17:28:55 -0400 (EDT)
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20010708171518.03617150@idirect.com> from "David Meadows" at Jul 8, 2001 05:23:40 pm
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have a look at the Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis, sec. 18-21, the end:
wild beasts but no lions, but definitely Christians.

Jim O'Donnell
Classics, U. of Penn
jod@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

David Meadows wrote:
> 
> 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
> 

.