Students of early Christianity will know that there has been a scholarly debate about the historical reality of the Roman persecution of Christians; indeed, scholars such as Candida Moss have argued that martyrdom narratives are more about how later Christians celebrated earlier Christians than about actual persecutions. Chapter 2 provides a brief discussion of why Christians were offensive to Roman sensibilities, in no small part arising from Christians standing aloof from cultic practices linked to social welfare. The heart of Kinzig's book (chapters 3-7) comprises a chronological account of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, beginning (in chapter 3) with a discussion of the legal and judicial issues around persecution and concluding (in chapter 7) with the persecution of Diocletian.