I'm curious of your source for that. It appears to be a consensus that the claims of martyrdom were exaggerated by the early Church Fathers in order to gain converts.
For example, until the reign of Decius, the main persecutor of Christians was the mob, not the state. By the mid 2nd century, mobs could be found willing to throw stones at Christians, and they might be mobilized by rival sects.
During the reign of Emperor Decius a decree was issued requiring public sacrifice, a formality equivalent to a testimonial of allegiance to the Emperor and the established order. Decius authorized roving commissions visiting the cities and villages to supervise the execution of the sacrifices and to deliver written certificates to all citizens who performed them. Christians were often given opportunities to avoid further punishment by publicly offering sacrifices or burning incense to Roman gods, and were accused by the Romans of impiety when they refused. Refusal was punished by arrest, imprisonment, torture, and executions. Christians fled to safe havens in the countryside and some purchased their certificates, called libelli.
Under Diocletion and Galerius, Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings. Of course, by then the Christian churches had become something of an alternative institution to the Roman state and had become a serious source of concern (and of course, in the 320s the Christian church becomes a bulwark of the state).
> Orlanth because Orlanthi are not loyal" and "Lunars oppose Orlanth
> because Orlanth himself is a danger and/or evil". If the issue is
the
> *loyalty* of Orlanthi, the Lunars might settle for making people
make
> showy demonstrations of fealty to the Moon (akin to a Roman
magistrate
> ordering someone to burn incense for the Emperor). But if Orlanth
> *himself* is the danger, then it's a bad idea to let people get
away
> with being publicly Lunar and privately Orlanthi--they're
> strengthening the rebel storm, and fostering unrest in the
country,
> even if they themselves are harmless.
This makes sense to me. I simply think that given the long-range Imperial plans to actually kill Orlanth, not a lot of resources would be put into finding little hidden bands of worshippers. Smash their major cult centers, close their temples and send troops to bust up any big rituals, but don't worry about the folk that flee to the hills.
Jeff
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