The Acts of the Christian Martyr

The Roman emperor Septimius Severus made conversion to Christianity illegal. A state-sanctioned genocide of Christians broke out across the Roman Empire and Mediterranean world. Perpetua was arrested and put in jail likely to make an example of a woman from a prominent family. All she had to do to go back to her husband and her infant child was just recant her claim that Jesus was Lord, pinch a little incense on the altar and say instead, Caesar is Lord.