prostitute, who represents the city set on seven hills—alluding to Rome (17:9)—is drunk on the blood of the saints and witnesses to Jesus (17:1–6). For readers facing the specter of persecution, Revelation would provide encouragement to resist to the point of death in the confidence that God will prevail in the end. Yet there are good reasons to revise this scenario. Historians have found little evidence of imperial persecution of Christians in the late first century. When there was violence against