161–180 (Lyon and Vienne – 177)

Persecution under Marcus Aurelius; the martyrs of Lyon and Vienne

The Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius saw in the empire's calamities – invasions and plagues – the gods' anger at obstinate Christians. Under him persecution intensified throughout the empire. It touched Greece (the martyrdom of bishop Publius of Athens), Rome (the execution of Justin Martyr), and Gaul.

In 177 the churches of Lyon and Vienne described a savage persecution in a letter to "the brethren in Asia and Phrygia." Christians were accused of incest and cannibalism. Some recanted, but then almost all confessed the faith again. More than forty died, including the ninety-year-old bishop Pothinus and the slave girl Blandina.

The martyrs interceded from prison for the readmission of penitent Montanist schismatics. Irenaeus succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyon. After Marcus Aurelius' death in 180, under Commodus the persecution subsided for a time.