This chapter explains the geographical coverage of Christianity in the third century. It deals with Christians relations with the Roman state and the persecutions which formed a backdrop to the mental lives of many Christians even if physically they may have been little affected by them. The chapter describes the literary and intellectual life of third-century Christianity. Persecution of Christians by Roman officials had been in the course of the second century sporadic and unsystematic, and basically local in range, and is best seen in the context of the occasional harassment of many another exotic group equally regarded as deviant. By autumn 249 the emperor Decius was secured in power after his usurpation. Mani and his disciple missionaries, the narrow band of high achieving 'Elect' and their devoted faithful, the 'Hearers', had in the course of the third century made remarkable proselytizing progress both inside and outside the permeable boundaries of the Roman world, especially in the eastern empire.