Through zeal and envy, the most faithful and righteous pillars of the church have been persecuted even to the most grievous deaths.
Clement of Rome
They are put to death, and they gain new life.
Eusebius
The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it.
Jerome
Persecutions have made the church of Christ grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.
Jerome
[Nero] laid the guilt, and inflicted the most cruel punishments, upon a set of people who were held in abhorrence for their crimes, and popularly called Christians … Their sufferings at their execution were aggravated by insult and mockery, for some were disguised in the skins of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some were crucified, and others were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero lent his own gardens for these executions.
Tacitus