Precisely what spurred the Roman emperor Diocletian to maneuver in opposition to Christians isn’t recognized. He had reigned with out persecution since 284; his spouse and daughter could have been Christian. Lactantius, writing c.315, blamed the fiercely religious Galerius – certainly one of Diocletian’s co-emperors – for inciting his anger by burning down a palace and blaming the minority religion.
The persecution started on 23 February 303. It was the feast of Terminus, the god of boundaries – chosen, Lactantius says, ‘in order that this faith might be terminated’. An edict was issued: church buildings had been to be razed, scriptures burnt. Crueller edicts adopted.
Eusebius, one other up to date supply, says the persecution started within the military. It rapidly unfold. He lingers on the totally different strategies: in Arabia, Christians had been killed by axe; in Cappadocia, their limbs had been damaged; in Mesopotamia they had been hung over fires and suffocated by smoke; in Antioch they had been roasted on grates.
The acts of varied martyrs – reminiscent of Felix and Crispina – counsel that sacrifice was the principal rivalry: each had been beheaded for refusing to honour pagan gods so. Toleration wouldn’t be renewed till the Edict of Milan in 313, by which period the Christian emperor Constantine had succeeded Diocletian within the west.
