Ramadan is a time to reflect, connect and experience the world more meaningfully.

In Abu Dhabi, Curiosity leads the way through adventure, wildlife and moments of wonder,

culture, movement and well-being create lasting connections, while shared tables and rich flavors turn every meal into a story.

Travel deeper, travel richer. Experience Abu Dhabi. I'm John Batchel with Emma Southern. This is the Rome you've never seen before.

Remember, Augustus had one weakness.

It was his daughter.

Well, the Roman Empire has one weakness, and it's Christianity.

And we're about to go to a saint, a saint who lives between the end of the second century A.D.

And the beginning of the third century A third century AD in Carthage,

the destroyed city rebuilt.

Her name is Perpetua, and we find her at 23 condemned as a Christian.

Emma, at this point, Pliny the Younger is commanding for the Roman Empire, the governor of Carthage.

He writes Rome.

He writes his emperor saying, what am I to do?

Why was he flummoxed?

And how was, at this point, what was the policy of the empire towards young women who said they were Christians?

So, yeah, Pliny's letter to Trajan, which was written just slightly before this,

but about 112 his letter was written is from Bethinia, and he is baffled because technically it's not

illegal to be a Christian but it is illegal to not worship the gods and so he doesn't when

people come to him and say these people are Christians um he he isn't entirely sure whether to punish them or not. And eventually he

decides that if they refuse to worship the Roman gods, then he will have to execute them as

heretics, essentially, and as traitors to the Romans, because the worship of the Roman gods is fundamental to their understanding of citizenship and keeping the empire safe and refusing to keep the empire safe is is treason.

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