Focusing closely on the primary sources, choose one of the following three topics in order to explore how Christians in the pre-Constantinian imagined their religion in relation to the power of the Roman state.

1. Through a close reading of the "Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas," explore description of Christian identity in the face of public execution. How do the martyrs respond to political power? In what way are they embedded in or detached from normal family dynamics? What role does gender play in their Christian drama?

2. Choose two of the martyr texts we have read for class, and explain how and why, in these texts, the suffering and dying martyr is presented as heroic. How is the martyr's heroism modeled on biblical examples, and how does it react to (or against) societal norms? Is the social status or gender of the martyr-hero significant?

3. Compare and contrast Athenagoras's "Plea Regarding the Christians" and the "Martyrdom of Polycarp" in order to explore the different ways that Christians might come to understand their relationship to "Rome." How do these two texts--one apology and one martyrology--represent the differences and similarities between "Rome" and Christianity with regards to morality, legality, and piety?