Back to the Library
The Church Fathers · c. 170–177; survives in fragments
Apology to Marcus Aurelius
Melito of Sardis · d. c. 180
Read elsewhere
What it is
A petition to the emperor arguing that the faith and the empire grew up together under Augustus and have prospered together since, and that only bad emperors — Nero and Domitian — have persecuted it.
Why it lasted
The first articulation of the idea that Rome and the church share a providential destiny, an argument that would reach full flower under Constantine and never entirely leave Christian politics.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next