Christians have lived in peace during most of the rule of Diocletian, but the victories of the staunchly pagan Galerius against the Sassanians have increased his influence; as he is a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods, Christians credit Galerius with persuading the emperor to initiate the persecution of the Christians that begins with an edict of February 24, 303.

Christian houses of assembly are destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings.

Hierocles, proconsul of Bithynia and Alexandria, is said to have been the instigator of the fierce persecution of the Christians.

He is the author of a work (not extant) in two books, in which he endeavors to persuade the Christians that their sacred books are full of contradictions, and that in moral influence and miraculous power Christ is inferior to Apollonius of Tyana.

Our knowledge of this treatise is derived from Lactantius (Instit.

div.

v. 2) and Eusebius, who wrote a refutation.

Diocletian had not been anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning the Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs.

Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage is aroused and he begins one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire.

On February 23, 303, Diocletian orders that the newly built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burned, and its treasures seized.

February 23 is the feast of the Terminalia, for Terminus, the god of boundaries, and the day the Tetrarchy terminates Christianity.

The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" is published.

The key targets of this piece of legislation are, as they had been during Valerian's persecution, Christian property and senior clerics.

The edict orders the destruction of Christian scriptures, liturgical books, and places of worship across the empire, and prohibits Christians from assembling for worship.

Christians are also deprived of the right to petition the courts, making them potential subjects for judicial torture; Christians cannot respond to actions brought against them in court; Christian senators, equestrians, decurions, veterans, and soldiers are deprived of their ranks; and imperial freedmen are re-enslaved.

Diocletian requests that the edict be pursued "without bloodshed", against Galerius's demands that all those refusing to sacrifice be burned alive.

In spite of Diocletian's request, local judges will often enforce executions during the persecution, as capital punishment is among their discretionary powers.

Galerius's recommendation—burning alive—will become a common method of executing Christians in the East.

After the edict is posted in Nicomedia, a man named Eutius tears it down and rips it up, shouting "Here are your Gothic and Sarmatian triumphs!"

He is arrested for treason, tortured, and burned alive soon after, becoming the edict's first martyr.

The provisions of the edict are known and enforced in Palestine by March or April (just before Easter), and is in use by local officials in North Africa by May or June.

The earliest martyr at Caesarea is executed on June 7; the edict is in force at Cirta from May 19.

The first edict is the sole legally binding edict in the West.

In the East, however, progressively harsher legislation is devised.

In the summer of 303, following a series of rebellions in Melitene (Malatya, Turkey) and Syria, a second edict is published, ordering the arrest and imprisonment of all bishops and priests.

In the judgment of historian Roger Rees, there was no logical necessity for this second edict; that Diocletian issued one indicates that he was either unaware the first edict was being carried out, or that he felt it was not working as quickly as he needed it to.

Following the publication of the second edict, prisons begin to fill—the underdeveloped prison system of the time cannot handle the deacons, lectors, priests, bishops, and exorcists forced upon them.

Eusebius writes that the edict netted so many priests that ordinary criminals were crowded out, and had to be released.

Diocletian, in anticipation of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of his reign on November 20, 303, declares a general amnesty in a third edict.

Any imprisoned clergyman can now be freed, so long as he agrees to make a sacrifice to the gods.

Diocletian may be searching for some good publicity with this legislation.

He may also seek to fracture the Christian community by publicizing the fact that its clergy has apostatized.

The demand to sacrifice is unacceptable to many of the imprisoned, but wardens often manage to obtain at least nominal compliance.

Some of the clergy sacrifice willingly; others do so on pain of torture.

Wardens are eager to be rid of the clergy in their midst.

Eusebius, in his Martyrs of Palestine, records the case of one man who, after being brought to an altar, had his hands seized and made to complete a sacrificial offering.

The clergyman was told that his act of sacrifice had been recognized and was summarily dismissed.

Others were told they had sacrificed even when they had done nothing.

The reasons for the Diocletian persecution, which had begun in February 303, are uncertain, but various explanations have been advanced.

One is the possible influence of Galerius, a fanatic follower of the traditional Roman religion.

Another is the desire to restore complete unity, without tolerance of a foreign cult that is seen as separatist and of men who are forming a kind of state within the state; yet another is the influence of anti-Christian philosophers such as Porphyry and governors such as Hierocles on the scholarly class and on the imperial court.

Other explanations posit the fear of an alienation of rebellious armies from emperor worship; or perhaps the disturbances provoked by the Christians themselves, who are agitated by doctrinal controversies.

At any rate, some or all of these factors have led Diocletian to publish the four edicts of 303-304, promising all the while that he will not spill blood.

His vow goes unheeded, however, and the persecutions spread through the empire with an extreme violence that does not succeed in annihilating Christianity but causes the faith of the martyrs to blaze forth instead.

In one instance, the Christian twin brothers Cosmas and Damia, who reportedly practice medicine without accepting payment and hence become known as the "silverless ones," are supposedly martyred in Syria during the persecutions.