Andrew Coddington 
Martyrdom: Christians in the Roman Empire [PDF ebook] 

Mankind has an inglorious history of using people of different nationalities or religions as scapegoats for failure. In the early centuries of the Common Era, the wrath of the ruling state fell on those who followed the new religion of Christianity. This book describes the foundations of these periodic crackdowns, provides a timeline of the persecutions, and outlines the aftermath of nearly three centuries of torture and martyrdom.