Thought that was common knowledge ..?
Yes, Christians were thrown to the lions in Ancient Rome, and to hell with that miserable vicious empire. (Yeah I know something of Rome's achievements, and important contribution to modern civilization, yada yada yada .. but good freakin' riddance, anyway.)
As for being in the Lions Den - wait till we get into discussions here about Vietnam, Chile or El Salvador .. if I happen to get involved, I might well get mauled by some of the unreconstructed reactionaries here. (My stand is to support the US in anything obviously necessary for homeland defence, nothing more.)