Diocletianic Persecution

The Diocletianic Persecution was the final and deadliest persecution of early Christians during the Roman Empire. The persecution began in 303 CE by order of the Emperor Diocletian and continued for eight years under his successors. Diocletian’s edict ordered Christian churches to be destroyed, sacred writings burned, and goods and status stripped from those who would not renounce their religion. Christians who continued to profess their faith were often arrested, tortured, and executed. Although the order was ostensibly an attempt to eradicate Christianity, the religion continued to grow despite the persecution. The order was lifted in 311 by an edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius, and two years later, Christians across the empire were granted religious freedom.

Background

Christianity was originally an offshoot of Judaism that began in the first century in the Roman province of Judea; by the mid-first century, the faith had spread throughout the Roman world. While the Romans were often tolerant of other beliefs, Christian religious practices were so foreign to the Romans, and its monotheism so contradictory to Roman polytheism, that the empire sometimes ordered crackdowns against the new faith. The first of these occurred about 64 CE under the Emperor Nero, who blamed Christians for starting a fire that tore through the capital of Rome and launched a subsequent campaign of suppression and persecution. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Christians were nailed to crosses, sewn into animal skins, and torn apart by dogs in the Colosseum. They were also lit on fire to be used as torches.

Persecutions against Christians were not continuous in the empire but were typically localized and sporadic over the course of the next few centuries. Because of the fear of reprisals, Christians often conducted services in secret, a practice that only increased the distrust Romans had for their religion. About 250, the Emperor Decius ordered that all Romans citizens must honor him by making a religious sacrifice. Rather than take part in the “pagan” ritual, many Christians refused and set off the first empire-wide persecution. Decius’s successor, Valerian, blamed Christians for the problems besetting the empire and ordered Christian priests to make public sacrifices to the Roman gods or face execution.

Overview

By the time Diocletian became emperor in 284, the empire was too large to be effectively ruled by one person. Diocletian divided the empire into a western half and an eastern half and established a four-person ruling structure known as the tetrarchy. Each division would be ruled by two people: an augustus, or a senior emperor, and a caesar, a co-emperor and designated successor. Diocletian ruled the eastern empire, with Galerius named as his caesar in 293. Maximian ruled in the west, with Constantius as his co-emperor.

According to historical accounts, Diocletian was at first relatively tolerant of Christians in the empire. Some sources from the time even hint that his wife, Prisca, was a Christian. The Christian historian Eusebius said that it was on the advice of Galerius that the emperor began the Diocletianic Persecution. To Christians, the era would be known as the Great Persecution, or the Age of Martyrs.

Diocletian’s first edict was issued on February 24, 303, a date chosen to coincide with a Roman festival honoring Terminus, the god of boundaries. The date was viewed by the emperor as the beginning of the end of Christianity. The edict outlawed Christianity across the empire and ordered that all Christian churches and sacred writings be burned. Christians who held public office would be stripped of that office unless they publically renounced their religion. Two later edicts ordered that all Christian clergy in the eastern half of the empire be imprisoned and tortured unless they made public sacrifices to the Roman gods. Any prisoner who rejected Christianity would be freed, while those who maintained their faith were tortured and killed. A fourth edict issued in 304 expanded the order to the entire empire and compelled all Roman citizens to gather publically and make religious sacrifices to the gods. Christians who refused to honor Rome’s gods or continued to meet in secret to worship would be subject to death.

The number of Christians killed during the persecution are impossible to estimate. Some accounts claim that more than 660 people were killed in the Egyptian city of Alexandria alone, while Eusebius said the number of deaths was “uncountable.” Christian writers often portrayed those killed as heroically accepting martyrdom rather than abandoning their faith. For example, a young girl named Agnes was said to have made a promise to God to remain a virgin. When she rejected the advances of several suitors, she was revealed as a Christian to the Roman authorities. Agnes refused to give up her promise and was sentenced to be burned to death. As she was being dragged naked through the streets, her hair was said to have grown over her to cover her body; later, the wood for the fire upon which she was to die would not light. In response, a soldier pulled out his sword and beheaded her. Today, Agnes is venerated as a saint.

While Eusebius wrote that Christian martyrdom was prevalent across the entire empire, enforcement of the edicts varied by region. Christians fared worse in the eastern section of the empire where Diocletian ruled. In 305, the emperor stepped down from his position as Augustus and Galerius took over, continuing the campaign against the Christians. In the far western sections of the empire controlled by Constantius, Christian churches were burned, but he refused to carry out any executions.

In 306, Constantius died and was succeeded by his caesar, Constantine. Constantine immediately put a stop to all persecutions of Christians in his section of the empire and ordered full restitution to anyone whose property had been destroyed. Later that year, the persecutions ended through the western empire but continued in full force in the eastern half. In 311, Galerius became ill and issued an edict of tolerance before he died, rescinding the orders against the Christians.

In 312, Constantine converted to Christianity and won complete control of the western half of the empire in 313. He and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the eastern half, issued the Edict of Milan that same year, officially granting religious freedom to Christians throughout the entire empire. In 380, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Bibliography

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