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Hello, in 303 AD, the Roman emperors began the great persecution of Christians and it

was eight years before they restored their right to worship.

In those years many died, some of them forgotten, but some preserved through this day by

writers such as UCIebius of Cesar Rhea who lived through it.

In his writings, UCIebius shaped perceptions of what it meant to be a martyr in those

first 300 years of Christianity and what it meant to be a Christian.

With me to discuss early Christian martyrs are Candida Moss, Edward Cadbury professor of

theology at the University of Birmingham, James Corke Webster, senior lecturer in classic

history and liberal arts at King's College London and Kate Cooper, professor of history at

Royal Holloway University of London.

Kate Cooper, we're covering 300 years, but can you outline how Christianity had spread

from its first roots with the apostles?

Christianity famously goes from being 12 people originally to being roughly 10% of the

population of the Roman Empire in the year 300.

And it seems that how Christians achieved the incredible growth rate from a handful

of people to roughly 6 million was by telling stories.

The times as it were, I must have been ready for it though, what the?

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