Factoid of the day

From a book review of "Soldering for God: Christianity and the Roman Legions"

Displaying a masterful command of the literary, archaeological, and numismatic evidence, Shean opens with a look at the social, moral, and religious status of the warrior in early societies, and goes on to examine the religious experience of the Roman Army. He then looks at the early Church and its relationship to the army and military service. Shean shows that, despite modern attempts to portray early Christians as pacifists, there was no inherent moral objection to military service in the early Church, noting, for example, that the many soldier-martyrs were persecuted for refusing to take part in pagan rituals, not for refusing to fight.

One doubts that Christian Romans fighting the barbarians were so naive to think the Huns or the various Goths could be stopped by a nasty letter, and when a country "turns the other cheek" it is the unarmed civilians who suffer the most...