though we commit no wrong. . . . You allow us to be harassed—plundered—persecuted—the people warring with us for our name alone. . . . We suffer unjustly contrary to the law. . . . We beseech you to have some care for us, that we may cease at length to be slaughtered at the instigation of false accusers. . . . When we have surrendered our goods, they still plot against our very bodies and souls—levelling against us many charges of crimes of which we are guiltless even in thought" (chap. i.).
". . . If indeed any one can convict us of a crime either small or great, we do not plead to be let off punishment; we are then prepared to suffer the sharpest and most merciless chastisement, but if the accusation is merely concerned with our Name . . . then, O illustrious sovereigns, it is your part to free us by law from their evil treatment. . . . What therefore is granted as the common right of all, we too claim for ourselves, that we shall not be hated and punished merely because we are called Christians" (Athenagoras, chap. ii.).
The above quotations from Athenagoras show very clearly on what apparently superficial grounds the Christians were bitterly persecuted and harassed in every conceivable fashion—solely because they were Christians. The nomen ipsum, the bare "name," was a sufficient ground of condemnation in the reign of the great and good Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Theophilus of Antioch, CIRCA A.D. 180
Theophilus, according to Eusebius, H.E. iv. 20-24, was sixth Bishop of the Syrian Antioch in succession (so Eusebius). He became bishop in the year 168, when Marcus was reigning. Nothing is known of his life save that he was born a pagan. He was the author of several works—including Commentaries on the Gospels and on the Book of Proverbs, and of a writing against Marcion, etc. But none of these have come down to us. All we possess are the three books containing "the Elements of the Faith," addressed to his friend Autolycus. The quoted passage is from the third of these books. His arguments in many respects are similar to those advanced by Justin Martyr.
