The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Honors Theses Honors College Fall 12-2014 Blood Sacrifice: The Connection Between Roman Death Rituals and Christian Martyrdom Angela Dawne Kennedy University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Kennedy, Angela Dawne, "Blood Sacrifice: The Connection Between Roman Death Rituals and Christian Martyrdom" (2014). Honors Theses. 277. https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/277 This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi Blood Sacrifice: The Connection Between Roman Death Rituals and Christian Martyrdom by Dawne Kennedy A Thesis Submitted to the Honors College of The University of Southern Mississippi in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of History December 2014 ii Approved by _____________________________________ Miles C. Doleac, Ph.D., Thesis Adviser Assistant Professor of Classics _____________________________________ Kyle F. Zelner, Ph.D., Chair Department of History _____________________________________ Ellen Weinauer, Ph.D., Dean Honors College iii Abstract Scholars from a variety of disciplines have done some incredible work on the subject of martyrdom, but the story is far from complete, particularly in terms of how and why it was so similar to the Roman concept of public deaths.