Persecution and Christian Mobility before Constantine: Forced Movement, Networks, and Communication

This article explores a spectrum of mobility generated by the persecution of Christians before Constantine. Some of this mobility was forced and involved flight, arrest, transfer for trial, exile, forced labour in the mines or movement toward execution. Other movement was secondary, including companions travelling with the persecuted, visits to prisoners, letters and provisions being carried and spectators gathering. While persecution was surely disruptive for communities, families and individuals, the study shows that some of the mobility it generated resulted in networks and contacts being maintained or established around refugees, exiles and prisoners, while Christians were also brought into contact with guards, magistrates and local communities. This pattern is found through analysis of selected sources of different genres, by diverse authors, and from different geographical and historical contexts, rather than through an exhaustive examination of a single genre, corpus or author. The recurrence of similar patterns across such diverse sources shows that the evidence is not unique or anecdotal.