I count thirty-three “faces” of Mars that made the wikipedia cut. Mars only knows how many more there are.
Meanwhile, the Romans to the Jews and Christians: “FFS, what is the big deal? Just pick one that sounds like your guy, and maybe throw a chicken to the emperor while you’re at it. Why are you making this so hard?”
One of my ‘favorite’ stories of Christian persecutions in the Roman Empire is an account of a Roman magistrate pleading with a Christian defendant to just make the damn sacrifice. Goes and says “Please make it, you don’t have to believe in it, if not for your life, to spare your family the grief of you dying” to “I am forcing you. This is coercion. Therefore, this isn’t on your soul. Please, just make the sacrifice” and finally “I will literally move your hands for you. None of this has to be on you. You will not be making this ritual in the eyes of any god, just fulfilling the law’s need. Just let me do that, and you can go free”, and every time the Christian refuses.
When insistent ritualism meets unyielding belief.
Another ‘favorite’ is of a man who was executed for ‘obstinacy’ (the usual charge towards non-citizen Christians who refused to make the proper sacrifices), only for the magistrate to have a whole bunch of Christians show up at his house a few days later proclaiming themselves and begging to be martyred as well. Frustrated, the magistrate tells them that if they want to die so badly, they can go home and kill themselves instead, and stop bothering him.
Greeks: “We MUST understand the esoteric details and histories of the gods if we are to appease them!”
Romans, using a stock phrase after listing a god’s known names: “Quocumque nomine (by whichever name [you are called])”
Literally just “Mars, or whoever it is we’re sacrificing to…”
I count thirty-three “faces” of Mars that made the wikipedia cut. Mars only knows how many more there are.
Meanwhile, the Romans to the Jews and Christians: “FFS, what is the big deal? Just pick one that sounds like your guy, and maybe throw a chicken to the emperor while you’re at it. Why are you making this so hard?”
One of my ‘favorite’ stories of Christian persecutions in the Roman Empire is an account of a Roman magistrate pleading with a Christian defendant to just make the damn sacrifice. Goes and says “Please make it, you don’t have to believe in it, if not for your life, to spare your family the grief of you dying” to “I am forcing you. This is coercion. Therefore, this isn’t on your soul. Please, just make the sacrifice” and finally “I will literally move your hands for you. None of this has to be on you. You will not be making this ritual in the eyes of any god, just fulfilling the law’s need. Just let me do that, and you can go free”, and every time the Christian refuses.
When insistent ritualism meets unyielding belief.
Another ‘favorite’ is of a man who was executed for ‘obstinacy’ (the usual charge towards non-citizen Christians who refused to make the proper sacrifices), only for the magistrate to have a whole bunch of Christians show up at his house a few days later proclaiming themselves and begging to be martyred as well. Frustrated, the magistrate tells them that if they want to die so badly, they can go home and kill themselves instead, and stop bothering him.