Martyrdom served as a catalyst of the intellectual and social rituals of the city by holding a mirror to the traditional functions of the agora and the amphitheatre as well as to the urban environment to which they belonged – prison, temple, and brothel.390 the execution and its message frequently gathered in the centre of the city, also maximised the impact of the martyrdom: Roman tradition was not the only answer. Although non-Jewish Christianity soon became dominant, the theme of martyrdom was not new. It was possible to receive as an idea and it was not improbable to occur, and there was no lack of examples in the biblical writings. An important question concerning martyrdom has always been whether it could be initiated by the martyr. In another early text, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, probably depicting events not so far after the martyrdom of Ignatius, is the voluntary reporting of oneself as Christian rejected. So is, however, also to leave the city in order not to be killed, while a man named Germanicus was seen as a good example because he answered the attempts of the proconsul to persuade him to abandon his faith by pulling the wild beasts closer to him, the sooner to be liberated from this world and arriving in heaven.391 St Cyprian of Carthage, even though he strongly condemned the idea of reporting oneself for reaching martyrdom, had himself notions on which site would be the best for his martyrdom.392 St Clement of Alexandria sharply rejected the ideas of those judging all martyrs as suicidal, but he himself judged taking the initiative to the martyrdom of oneself as wrong. It was a sin to help the sinful acts of those perpetrating the killings. It would neither be a martyrdom nor Christian – instead of becoming a martyr it would be to commit suicide.393 In Christian antiquity these views seem to have been fairly consistent – martyrdom was welcomed, but a line is drawn against 390 Bowersock 1995 p 4, 41 sqq, 48 sqq, 55 (quotation p 55). 391 Mart Pol 3:1, 4, 5:1, in Andrén 1979 p 280 sq. Some of the same motive appear to be present when Perpetua pulled the hand of her executioner to her throat, Perpetuas och Felicitas’ martyrium 21 2000 p 57. 392 Bowersock 1995 p 62, see also Bähnk 2001 p 171 note 303. 393 Bowersock 1995 p 67 sqq, Bähnk 2001 p 172. 114
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