Marcus Aurelius and the Stoic Emperor's Christian Persecutions

Marcus Aurelius: Rome's Philosopher King — Fexingo History · Jul 5, 2026 · 8m · transcript

Was Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-king who wrote the Stoic Meditations, personally responsible for persecuting Christians? The evidence is murkier than you might think. This episode unpacks the legal status of Christianity under Roman law before Marcus’s reign, the famous letter from the church of Lyons describing the brutal 177 CE persecutions under governor Publius Attius, and the conflicting accounts from Eusebius, Tertullian, and the Historia Augusta. We examine the so-called 'Thundering Legion' miracle that Christian writers claimed saved Marcus’s army during the Marcomannic…